Enhancement Shaman GuidePatch 11.1 Undermine(d) PTR Development Notes
Wowhead Editorials
Something Feels Familiar
Patch 11.1 comes with (yet another) surprise rework to Enhancement that seems intent on rectifying some of the more unhealthy aspects of gameplay that arose from both the Stormbringer and Totemic hero trees. It’s no secret that the spec has been very strong numerically, but a lot of that power stemmed from hero talents dominating the base spec design, and a lot of what made up the spec identity over the past decade has been buried beneath it. While it’s probably getting old to see yet another write up on lengthy Enhancement changes, I’m happy to say at least that they’re (almost) universally positive for us. Many of the things addressed were fairly niche concerns, quality of life, ease of tuning and most importantly a strong return to the thematic core of the spec.
Looking forward to the PTR then, while we’ve definitely leaned toward the overtuned side in The War Within, what’s coming looks to include some adjustments that should make it easier for the balance team to keep it in line. I can admit I messed up in the lead up to launch not predicting how extreme the exponential scaling was, and it was clear that some of the underlying mechanics we’ve been worried about in the past finally caught up to us when combined with hero talents. Due to that, I can understand why non-Enhancement players are concerned that the spec might dominate the meta just like Season 1 when there’s another long list of changes lined up.
With what’s on the table in 11.1, it seems more realistic to number tune things directly without some of our mechanics getting out of control with gear and playstyle shifts, and I think we’ll be in a much healthier design space both for our own gameplay and the overall meta of the game. I also want to underline that as of right now on the PTR, these changes feel like a big mechanical upgrade and do not feel like nerfs at all, but they do feel like things are in a more controlled and balanced state. It’s also getting there without sacrifices to performance, so old and new players have something to be excited about.
What’s Been Enhanced?
With that out of the way, let’s go through the major changes that come with the new patch and how drastic of a shift it is to the spec’s thematics and damage profiles. First and foremost – melee strikes across the board are significantly more integral to the playstyle. This immediately softens the spender-or-bust playstyle of Stormbringer and pulls a lot of damage away from Surging Totem, which is basically Totemic’s entire identity currently.
This means talents related to Stormstrike and Lava Lash are much more desirable, and hero talents that support these have been raised in value alongside them. This also extends to AoE, with the Crash Lightning direct cast dealing much more damage and being a core component of our damage delivery – especially important considering the new tier set change leans into this. All of these together brings us much closer to the Dragonflight era “battle mage” playstyle of weaving spells and strikes together, and personally the version on the PTR is far more aligned with the thematics of the spec that I enjoy. Some other highlights of the changes related to individual changes are as follows:
- Primordial Wave has had a significant usability pass, instead becoming a button that deals direct damage to Flame Shocked targets, with Primal Maelstrom rolled in to generate 5 Maelstrom Weapon when on cast. This takes away some of the strength as a one point wonder, but flows well in gameplay as a snap generator and still activates Lightning Rod in AoE for Stormbringer.
Both follow-up nodes (that have spent the expansion effectively dead) have been changed. Primal Maelstrom has been baselined and replaced with Splintered Elements as a 2-point node, returning the 30-second burst Haste cycle. The capstone node is now Primordial Storm, adding a combo follow-up cast that consumes Maelstrom Weapon to deal 3 heavy damage AoE swings that scale with a variety of multipliers we have. These strikes also each individually trigger Windfury Weapon, so it provides a massive surge of uncapped AoE damage and Maelstrom Weapon, in particular for Totemic.
Elemental Spirits has been reworked, instead providing a split of a universal Physical damage amplifer and a smaller boost to each of the three Fire, Frost and Nature boosts depending on which wolf is rolled. This means that with the universal component it’s less of a trap to pick it up when a given build doesn’t heavily skew toward our magic toolkit.
- Flowing Spirits has also had its proc rate flattened to be easier to quantify, instead of the hidden suppression when wolves are active. Currently on the PTR both hero trees are so flooded with valuable GCDs that this node dominates Witch Doctor’s Ancestry, and due to that the low volume of Feral Spirit spawns provided by Elemental Spirits’ proc mechanics becomes an issue.
- The Elemental Spirits issue is caused by Physical spawns having all abilities (including Windfury Weapon and Stormstrike) eligible to spawn wolves, while Elemental Spirits can only be triggered by spell school tagged abilities – which we cast far less of. This culminates in Elemental Spirits currently being a bit of a trap again, and while it’s patient zero of our hyperscaling problems due to its multiplicative nature, this imbalance probably needs looking at.
The spec tree in general has had some talent shuffles, making pathing much smoother for both hero trees, and making it easier to hybridize certain parts of the tree both in damage types and at different target counts. This has the effect of almost certainly killing off what remains of the Elementalist / Storm split, but gives more pronounced differentiation between the Spec and Hero tree interactions.
Some smaller, but important changes include:
- Molten Assault has been changed to a 5 target spread (up from 4), allowing us to cap out Flame Shock application instantly.
- Legacy of the Frost Witch has had its value for 1 point increased to 15%, and duration increased to 8 seconds. This makes it significantly easier to maintain during combat without worrying as much about weaving Maelstrom Weapon spenders efficiently.
- Lashing Flames now applies in AoE from Sundering casts, removing the need to tab-target Lava Lash when playing it.
- Molten Thunder is no longer an RNG reset proc related to Stormsurge, and instead has an increasingly lower chance to reset itself, with the chance scaling based on targets hit. This flattens the ceiling of Totemic, but massively improves its reliability in particular in AoE.
- Doom Winds and Voltaic Blaze (finally) scale with Mastery, but they’re sadly still missing from Stormcaller and Nature’s Fury.
We’ve sadly lost Ancestral Guidance, which is a massive blow to our offhealing & utility, in particular in Mythic+. There’s not really any meaningful buffs elsewhere, it’s just gone.
While it’s a very long list of changes and has a lot of implications on how we play and build, the basic takeaway is that this improves a lot of the “dead” talents we’ve had. It also reduces some of the friction we had previously where some talents were either far too difficult to reach due to their pathing tax, or couldn’t be combined due to synergy overrides elsewhere on the tree. There’s now far less “trap” combinations where you lack GCDs or key synergies to extract the value, and (most) picks have a very clear place in our builds.
Hero Talents – Stormbringer & Totemic
Moving on from the Spec Trees, it’s hard to really talk about Enhancement in The War Within without having a section dedicated to Hero Talents due to their dominating impact on Enhancement’s gameplay loops. I’m happy to say that, while they both still have very overbearing mechanics on the end goal of each rotation, they more naturally integrate our core mechanics rather than overtaking them in 11.1. It feels much more like both Stormbringer and Totemic have come into their own in a distinct, and healthier way.
Currently, both trees are extremely close in performance both in single target and AoE, and they also have different specialties. As there’s some quite large changes in the transition from 11.0.7 over to 11.1 for both of them, I’ve separated breakdowns and builds into their respective sections below.
Stormbringer
Looking at the standout of Season 1 in Stormbringer, it broadly still fits into a similar playstyle it settled into over the course of Season 1. Where damage is sourced however shifts more toward Stormstrike, and with Elemental Spirits’ multiplicative scaling lowered it instead elects to grab baseline Flowing Spirits without the follow-up to lean into this further (and to save on GCDs). In AoE, most of the damage lost from this change in Feral Spirit choice on spenders is made up for by the huge increase to Crash Lightning casts. Below is a breakdown of key takeaways:
- Maelstrom Weapon spenders are a still a core component due to the power of Tempest, but they’re slightly less pronounced as the only goal of the tree. It still needs to path through Static Accumulation to support the hero tree however, which currently makes its single target burst strength hard to guage due to a bug with Windstrike.
- Deeply Rooted Elements even with a move to Maelstrom Weapon is too unreliable at our current gen/spend rate, and while its uptime slightly increases compared to Ascendance, isn’t worth losing the controlled burst of the standard 2-minute cooldown.
Gameplay is even more GCD locked than before, and with the loss of the Season 1 set bonus Witch Doctor’s Ancestry is too expensive to play. Pair that with the flattened proc rate of Flowing Spirits and the increase in Stormstrike value, and the tree currently settles on just these two points without picking up Elemental Spirits.
Conductive Energy now smart targets enemies hit by Chain Lightning, removing the need to tab-target as much as before and maintains good uptime on multiple targets in AoE.
Primordial Wave now provides a snap Maelstrom Weapon generation and burst tool, and a way to instantly set up Lightning Rod in AoE – though we do lose the big follow up Lightning Bolt spender hurting our burst. There is a small gameplay adjustment though, as Flame Shock needs to be applied and spread before activating the baseline button now.
There are some very strong AoE builds that pick up all 3 capstones in Primordial Storm, Thorim’s Invocation and Flowing Spirits, but to do so it loses Elemental Assault and 1 point in Legacy of the Frost Witch. Losing these makes single target significantly worse, to the extent were I think it may be too niche for Mythic+, but it is a possibility considering how much AoE we currently bring.
The value of Crash Lightning in AoE has heavily shifted toward the cast rather than the buff, making it something we actively aim to press now to take advantage of the buff it gains from casting Chain Lightning. This also allows for us to pick up Unrelenting Storms or Converging Storms to use it as a single target filler, giving the build incredible flexibility for a few leftover talent points.
Below are some sample builds of what looks to be strong currently on the PTR when playing with Stormbringer.
Color Key⭘ – Primary Talents that build the core Currently Stormbringer is in the enviable position of having both single target and AoE talents working as a hybrid of both, so it has spare points. Both Converging Storms and Unrelenting Storms are worth grabbing depending on target count, while Sundering pairs with Doom Winds for more burst AoE. The Hero Tree always takes Supercharge still, as Maelstrom Weapon is still the core. Sample Build – CcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMzMDMzDMDzMzMMLzM2mtBAAAAAAAAAYDwmZMsRWgZYoBLAYWmMDjlFzMzMMzMz2wyMzEYYMzAAMGA |
Color Key⭘ – Primary Talents that build the core Stormbringer in AoE has a few options, but largely it can play the same as 11.0.7. There is an option to pivot from Feral Spirit for massive AoE, but 1pt of Elemental Assault can be awkward. Converging Storms provides some funnel, while Tempest Strikes / Flurry are single target focused. The Hero Tree always takes Supercharge still, as Maelstrom Weapon is still the core. Sample Build – CcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMzMDMzDMDzMzMMmZsNLzAAAAAAAAAA2AsZGDbkFYGGawCAmlJzwYZxMzMDzMzsNsMzMBGGzMAAmBAAMAw |
Playstyle Breakdown
While the change to Elemental Spirits has a very big impact on the goals of Stormbringer builds by reducing the exponential scaling on Maelstrom Spenders, the tree naturally has the lowest GCD commitment to leverage the Hero tree’s power. Due to that, it can mostly adjust its playstyle to accomodate the 11.1 changes quite comfortably, filling up with much more powerful Stormstrike casts. It also opens up some talent points to pick up some flex options, giving it flexibility depending on the situation.
When it comes to AoE, while it loses the power of Primordial Wave Lightning Bolt casts, it can aggressively cast Crash Lightning for significantly more damage and make sure each one is buffed by Chain Lightning, while also reaping the benefits of the Voltaic Surge scaling fixes in any empty GCDs leftover. Pair these with more consistent Lightning Rod application through the Conductive Energy change, and it more than covers the loss in spender modifiers transitioning to the new playstyle.
The only downside is that the advantage of stacking up a large number of Elemental Spirits for explosive spenders is much less potent (which is likely a lot healther than what we’ve seen so far in The War Within). It also has some of its 30-second burst cycle curbed in AoE with the Primordial Wave change, shifting more of that power into our sustained damage and burst moments with Doom Winds and Ascendance. More broadly, I think some of the harder to execute aspects have been removed and it has a smoother playstyle throughout, alongside the talent tree being much easier to path through comfortably without as much tension at key points. In closing then, Stormbringer looks very strong, in particular in AoE and burst, and with current tuning I expect it to remain as an excellent Mythic+ pick in particular.
Totemic
In stark contrast, Totemic has seen a complete overhaul, and dare I say it finally delivers on a unique and engaging playstyle without being too one note obnoxious to play around. We’ve thankfully moved away from the egregious Surging Totem tuning that’s been present in 11.0.7, and some throwaway talents like Reactivity finally take centre stage, creating a playstyle very reminiscent of Dragonflight. Both in single target and AoE it marries a mixture of strikes together with some mid-range cooldowns to create a very engaging new playstyle that splits its damage across a variety of sources and elements. It’s also noticeably less swingy in its damage, pulling some of the condensed RNG out and spreading it over the entire kit. Below are some of the major things coming:
- Both Windfury Weapon and Earthsurge have been added to Reactivity Sundering triggers, which lifts Lava Lash into a core component of the playstyle both in single target and, for the first time, in AoE as well. This in turn hugely raises the value of Hot Hand and Ashen Catalyst, resolving the problem with the right side of our spec tree while also modernizing it.
- With the reduction in Surging Totem’s base damage (both via the baseline damage tuning, Oversurge reductions and Earthsurge changes) it’s no longer the overriding source of damage, making it less crucial to handle its position. With the extra relocation re-cast option and more active pulse triggers from Reactivity contributing to Earthsurge that makes getting value out of it easier, handling the totem itself is now much less punishing.
- Primordial Storm paired with the returning Splintered Elements slots in nicely onto the 30-second burst window with Molten Thunder and Doom Winds, and with some finesse can be set up for with fresh Surging Totem drops to use Whirling Fire motes to reliably activate Hot Hand.
- As a large amount of its damage is coming from hybrid damage schools such as Flamestrike, it can take advantage of the high proc rate of regular Flowing Spirits to amplify them without needing Elemental Spirits. This also means it can use Stormstrike as a powerful filler in between strong procs, allowing us to remain GCD locked with high value abilities when managed properly.
- The large nerf to Oversurge and the lowered GCD value of Maelstrom Weapon spenders hitting both Static Accumulation and Thorim’s Invocation makes the bottom right path far less desirable, and as of current tuning doesn’t seem worthwhile in any situation.
- Due to Surging Totem, Reactivity and Primordial Storm it comes with a very potent amount of baseline cleave regardless of loadout without any real single target loss, giving it great flexibility so long as it fits timers.
Below is a breakdown of the type of builds that currently look strong on the PTR making use of Totemic’s new toys.
Color Key⭘ – Primary Talents that build the core Currently Totemic on the PTR has two flex points that can be used to focus on pure single target or pick up small amounts of extra cleave if an encounter needs it. The Hero Tree always takes Amplification Core currently, and both Pulse Capacitor and Supportive Imbuements are roughly equal depending on how often adds are present or if burst is needed. Earthsurge is mandatory for obvious reasons related to Reactivity. Sample Build – CcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMzMjZwYYmZmZmxMjthBAAAAAAAAAALwCMjFN2GAzEsBgZZyMMWWMzMzwMzMbDLzMTghxMDAwMA |
Color Key⭘ – Primary Talents that build the core In AoE Totemic has two flex points for either additional single target on bosses, or adding in more flexible cleave talent picks. The Hero Tree always takes Amplification Core currently, and both Pulse Capacitor and Supportive Imbuements are roughly equal depending on target count and how much burst is needed. Earthsurge is mandatory for obvious reasons related to Reactivity. Sample Build – CcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMzMjZwMYmZmZmxMjtxMAAAAAAAAAAYBWgZsox2AYmgNAMLTmhxyiZmZGmZmZbYZmZCMMmZAAMAwMA |
Playstyle Breakdown
Totemic benefits significantly from the increased Flowing Spirits proc rate and suffers very little from the weak tuning of Elemental Spirits, as so much of its damage is either directly Physical or multi-school Flamestrike damage, giving it strong integration at the bottom of the tree. Surging Totem having its damage reigned in has opened up space for other more flexible and interactive abilities to enter into the rotation. Its damage profile is also significantly changed – Ascendance being significantly worse due to the Oversurge nerf and less GCDs to spend via Static Accumulation procs means a shift over to Primordial Storm. This creates a 30 second burst cycle supported by Haste, a surge of Maelstrom Weapon and Windfury Weapon triggers that can also leverage Doom Winds every minute.
The most significant difference is adding both Windfury Weapon and Earthsurge triggers to Reactivity Sundering, massively improving the synergy across the tree both in single target and AoE, providing a vector for Lava Lash to deal worthwhile damage and scale up properly in AoE. Changes to Molten Thunder as well, while they have a lower ceiling, now provide a more reliable frontloading of burst when you deploy your first cast – especially in AoE situations. All of this combined makes our Windfury Weapon imbues core to every component of the tree, giving Imbuement Mastery and even Supportive Imbuements a chance to shine in uncapped situations. Doom Winds also becomes a more pronounced cooldown in AoE, as we can consistently blanket every GCD during it with an AoE activator.
The main downside relative to the current playstyle is it’s much more sensitive to fight timers, and downtime is (as always with Hot Hand taken) exceptionally punishing if timed poorly. Other than that though the tree has extremely strong, flexible build choices that work in a variety of situations. While in 11.0.7 Totemic brute forced its way into strength with raw numbers, in 11.1 it has distinct and unique strengths that have uses in both Raid and Mythic+ situations, and its a huge upgrade relative to the current situation that I’m personally having a blast playing.
Tier Set Update
As I mentioned in the initial speculative review before 11.1 hit the PTR last year, our set bonus in Season 1 was incredibly powerful and ultimately caused a lot of balance problems from its first implementation in Beta right through to the current iteration you can play right now. Losing something so strong is always quite worrying, and the new set bonus is a bit more… quirky by hooking into Doom Winds. That said, despite my initial hesitation after playing with the first pass I was pleasantly surprised, especially when paired with the new spec updates. The number of improvements to Totemic that specifically hook into Windfury Weapon in AoE, alongside Primordial Storm means dropping its cooldown to (roughly) 30-40 seconds created explosive AoE burst that was consistent.
With that said though, the set bonus saw two follow up iterations. My first take on the initial changes was more positive, however what actually reached the servers this week is a little more dubious, even if it does solve the big problem of the original bonus adding extra GCDs into the rotation. What the set is now is:
Compared to the original implementation, this loses the advantage of aligning cooldowns around the 30 second mark, making it more difficult to leverage the random Doom Winds procs. The original implementation removing Winning Streak! from strikes appeared far more conducive to the playstyles of both trees, and instead moving this over to Maelstrom Weapon expenditure again brings back the original problem – it muddies the balance of resource value. It also has extremely low frequency (roughly once a minute), and with Crash Lightning still being a low impact filler, both hero trees gain very little from the priority damage boost at the current value.
The real problem is reminiscent of the release iteration of the Aberrus set bonus – it’s extremely weak in single target, but it’s very overtuned in AoE. Crash Lightning is already moving into a solid place in 11.1, and buffing it in a way that explicitly focuses on the AoE aspect is going to move something that’s already quite strong into overpowered territory, something we’re already very good at. While free Doom Winds procs on paper are nice and provide a lot of integration to both hero trees in different ways (and as an tree agnostic tool it’s a very good one to pick), the frequency and uptime – if it’s to be the main focus of the set – needs to be looked at. Therefore, I think it’s very important to pull some of the AoE power out of this set and balance it more evenly.
The loss of the extra Feral Spirit damage boosts from Season 1 is definitely going to be noticeable, but all the other changes considered, this new set might create a similar problem of exacerbating something we’re already good at (while being close to worthless outside of those scenarios). Shifting the bonus into procs that are less RNG to align was definitely a good change compared to the initial implementation, but I worry about where that power has shifted to considering what else has changed in this update. Lastly, there’s a small issue of how talent point heavy it is to make full use out of each bonus. Doom Winds (while integral to trees) is a heavy point investment, and if Crash Lightning is necessary to pull value out in single target the middle of our tree becomes bloated with high tension choices.
Bugs & Feedback
With the scale of the update, it’s no surprise there are a handful of bugs in there with varying degrees of severity. Some of them impact performance negatively, while a couple of them are mechanically invasive and are probably a bit more important to get a fix out quicky.
Bugs
- During Ascendance, the buff that increased Stormstrike by 100% was not applied to Windstrike, making part of our cooldown a significant downgrade to the button it’s enhancing.
- The relocation aspect added to Surging Totem overrides the button for 24 seconds, regardless of what happens. That means if you use Totemic Recall, you cannot drop a fresh totem until that timer ends, including if you dismiss the totem beforehand. This is something we’ve done recently to re-align cooldowns and makes gameplay awkward, so needs addressing.
- Adding the Flame Shock spread from Molten Assault as an eligible trigger for Whirling Earth has made pooling and combining Voltaic Surge extremely difficult, and is just a direct downgrade to gameplay that existed before this patch.
Leaving Ghost Wolf currently stops ALL momentum and cancels any active movement key holds. This is incredibly jarring (especially on new encounters such as Sprocketmonger Lockenstock with conveyer belts) and needs to be fixed.This seems to be fixed as of last build.Feral Lunge is also causing us to get rooted and tethered to the place we land sometimes, needing to be Rescued or Life Gripped away to be able to move again.This seems to be fixed as of last build.- Voltaic Blaze and Doom Winds as mentioned have not been added to Stormcaller or Nature’s Fury.
- While Whirling Fire motes do extend Hot Hand when used, if it procs again inside the window it munches the duration back down to 8 seconds, which feels terrible.
- The new set bonus sometimes has procs munched if it triggers during an active cast of Doom Winds. This is inconsistent as to what the specific cause is.
When it comes to direct feedback about the situation on PTR, I’d start out by just giving a blanket statement that things are much better thematically, and the gameplay loop feels more engaging throughout rather than sporadically. A lot of small things such as Molten Assault spreading to 5 instead of 4 are also much appreciated. There are a few concerns that could stand to be changed though, some of which benefit us and others to bring our currently very strong damage a little more in line so we don’t have another overtuned patch launch:
Feedback
- It seems like the internal Maelstrom Weapon counter on Tempest now resets on boss encounter and Mythic+ key start. This is, ultimately, a healthy thing but it does impact how quickly Stormbringer can get started. I think with this change, there’s no good reason why the counter is kept hidden and requires complex WeakAuras to track.
- The uptime of Hot Hand in particular for Totemic is extreme (especially once the proc munching bug is addressed). It leads to it absolutely dominating the rotation and filling up the majority of GCDs, and has in turn arguably made Reactivity a bit too strong as well. While it obviously feels good to have up and contributes a lot of damage, it should probably be reduced (likely in duration). In the process, I’d like to see it dropped to 1 point as well to ease up the talent point squeeze. It would also be really nice to flip its position with Ashen Catalyst to bring back some Stormbringer talent options.
- Ascendance being bugged with Windstrike makes it difficult to eyeball how good it is, but considering it’s potentially seeing double value on Windstrike it probably needs an eye kept on it. Once this bug is addressed it’ll be easier to see, but our burst is already incredibly high even with the bug in place in single target for Stormbringer, and might also extend to Totemic.
- The talent point squeeze with the set bonus considered is very extreme and some picks are getting pushed out (especially if Crash Lightning enters into the picture). Ice Strike, Hailstorm and Fire Nova are completely dead, and Voltaic Blaze is a hard sell as well currently. Should Hot Hand go to 1 point, more interesting pathing could be done, and in particular I’d very much like to see a link from Doom Winds to Stormblast.
- Losing Ancestral Guidance is a massive hit, and none of the other changes even come close to equalling its value. I understand it was a bit strong when it could be leveraged, but considering how expensive our offhealing is and how little passive healing we provide in general for a “hybrid”, it feels a bit hollow to use Restoration as an excuse for removing this as it feels more targeted toward Elemental and Enhancement.
- Flowing Spirits proc asymmetry with Elemental Spirits is a major problem. Windfury Weapon and Stormstrike being in the pool for Physical wolves massively skews its proc rate, and they’re also cast significantly more than spell school abilities. I’d like to see this more normalized, and most importantly Stormstrike in particular really needs some sort of proc activation for Elemental Spirits if it’s ever going to see play, especially for Stormbringer. In the process, removing Windfury Weapon from the pool entirely and adjusting the proc rates should also probably be done to stop spawns getting out of control.
- Oversurge nerfs probably went a little too far in particular as the follow-ups lost value for Totemic by virtue of not spending nearly as much, and Deeply Rooted Elements’ proc rate with the new playstyle is so low and inconsistent that it’s doubtful it will see play. It would also be nice to see Primordial Storm be eligible for Totemic Rebound.
Conclusion & Takeaway
So far the 11.1 PTR looks like a thoroughly successful re-imagining of the initial pass of the spec in The War Within. Enhancement is finding a nice place between its roots as a battle mage and the more complex mechanics added by hero trees, and instead of being at odds creating tension, there’s a lot more harmony. Some wasted talents have also seen solid upgrades (in particular the addition of Primordial Storm) and the edges have been sanded off some of our more… unique mechanics to improve the general flow of gameplay across the board, while reducing some of the extreme complexity.
Since parts of this article may have a negative slant, I’d like to reiterate that I’m incredibly happy with the work done here and I think they’ve nailed the assignment on bringing back the spec thematics. While the announcement of yet another pretty heavy rework came as a bit of a surprise considering how much change we’ve already had, I’m happy it’s turned out well and there’s not much more on the list I feel the spec urgently needs. It’s also no small feat that both Stormbringer and Totemic manage to be engaging, strong, and flexible in their own unique ways with relatively similar end performance, something I couldn’t say at launch.
That said, at the risk of setting off alarm bells to Enhancement players everywhere, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the spec right now looks like it’s on the overtuned side, in particular in the AoE department with the new set bonus. This judgement obviously depends on where the final tuning goal is for all classes, but at least based on shared experiences, we look extremely strong. I don’t want to cause the spec to be irreperably nerfed, but I would like a closer eye to be kept on its numbers, so as to avoid an 11.0.5 situation of last minute emergency fixes that may potentially overshoot the mark. I’d hate to see such a well crafted iteration of the spec get spoiled by tuning issues overshadowing another season.
About the Author
| This guide is written by Wordup, a long-time Enhancement player and moderator on the Shaman Discord server, Earthshrine. I’ve played every iteration of Enhancement since Sunwell, and played in Echoes on Laughing Skull (EU) since Warlords of Draenor. You can catch me on Twitter, or in Discord if you have any guide related questions! |
About The Author
