Ahoy hoy folks, once again I've been asked several times on issues pertaining to enhancement and I see them being asked regularly here on the boards so hopefully this thread should at least serve in some sense a focal point for the majority of the Concerns that seem to pop up regularly. If there is a concern here that you've already seen answered elsewhere, thats kind of the point as I want to make sure that we keep the boards nice and neat :).
Where Can I Find Good Enhancement Gear?
Ok, to start off. If you're not sure of what gear is available, kindly point yourself to my Gear guide that's stickied above. I do try to keep it up to date, and I check it almost every day. If I have missed something, (and believe me I have) please reply to it with the item and hopefully an allakhazam or thottbot link to it. Thanks again, and I'll update it as quickly as possible.
What is Your Spec and Current Gear?
This is also posted in the gear thread but I will also put it here to mainly keep the enhancement gear thread clean for people to remind me of new drops and whatnot.
Here is my Gear courtesy of CTprofiles. Click on Wishlist or PVP to see my gear.
http://www.ctprofiles.net/302078
Here is the link to my Current spec, cross posted also from my gear thread.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=GZxVbdVMutx0ehh
I feel this build is a good balance between Raiding and PVP. I focus mainly on the totem resto talents and the +hit talents as well for PVP, and the reduced threat and resist to interrupts and faster heals for PVE. Yes, I am specc'd stormstrike, because I feel, given the ap nerf to windfury, any additional opportunity to proc windfury is almost a necessity in my eyes at least to maximize my melee dps potential. Obviously people have different specs in mind and their different strengths which I will tie now into my next point, also cross posted from my gear thread.
What types of Enhancement Specs Are There?
First, what "kind" of enhancement shammy do you want to be? Believe it or not, there are several types and depending on how you gear yourself can help yourself in the future.
I typically split enhancement specs into three types...
"Melee Oriented"
"Melee Survivalist"
"Suicide Spec"
Melee Oriented - The best way to describe this spec, is relying on melee damage for over 80% of your overall damage and using your spells as backup. This spec generally dictates spending at least 30 points into enhancement, usually to get Stormstrike or Improved Weapon Buffs and TOtems. The remainder of the points can be split where you wish, but the key thing about this spec is that over 31 of your points will be going into enhancement so the gear will have to reflect that.
Gear
Heavy Emphasis on Str/AP/Crit/Agi/Int
A very good quality 2 Hander
A good melee shield with a hard hitting 1h
By level 60, you should be shooting for over 600AP unbuffed and about 20% chance to crit with at least 4k hp/mp
Melee Survivalist - This spec deviates slightly from the previous spec as you won't be able to put 31 points into enhancement because you'll be shooting to get the Nature's Swiftness talent in Resto and the associated pre requisites needed to get it. This spec once again provides solid melee dps as the first spec, but doesn't go as far so you can get the infinitely useful Nature's Swiftness talent which can provide an instant cast spell every 3 minutes. I can't count the number of times this spell has saved my life. Plus, the talents that you need to get before it will make you overall a better healer than the other two specs, which is always a plus when endgame rolls around and you'll still be able to remain enhancement but heal when the opportunity arises.
Gear
Once again, strong emphasis on Str/AP/Crit/Stam/Int
Place a slight emphasis on some +Spellpower or +Healing gear.
You will need still a good hard hitting 2h, but see if you can get one with +Spellpower or other Stats rather than pure melee. The Hammer of Ji'Zhi from AQ40 is a good example of this.
Any kind of "Caster" shield with Int/Stam combos on it
Good hard hitting 1h to complement the shield.
Ideally by level 60, you should be around 500AP and about 15-18% chance to crit. You should also be around 4500hp/4500mp minimum by this point as well.
Suicide Spec - This spec is called this for a reason. This spec basically relys on providing as much damage, be it physical or magical and frontloading it as fast as possible. Speccing 31 enhancement and then putting all of the rest into elemental will lead to Tripple Windfury Crits of over 2k followed by Shocks of Almost 1k are the norm. This kind of spec is what kills people in Battlegrounds and usually leads to nerf posts as well. Unfortunately, this spec has a major downside: Your surviveability goes to absolute crap. You lose any kind of improved quicker, uninterruptible heals as well as your heals are less efficient. You don't have nature's swiftness and your totems cost significantly more. The long and the short of it, you'll die faster, but man you'll take down a lot of people with you.
Gear
A bit tougher but, still focus on Str/Stam/Ap/Crit
Place generally heavier emphasis on enhancement versus spellpower, but don't avoid grabbing some good elemental pieces to complement your set.
STAMINA STAMINA STAMINA Put as much stamina on you as you possibly can without sacrificing any of those stats. You are a glorified wrecking ball now, but you need to survive long enough to actually deliver your payload before you go down.
A 2h or 1h/Shield Combo is good either way, it all depends on where more of your damage is coming from. I personally would choose a hard hitting 2h rather than focusing on a shield, but that's my preference.
By level 60 you should have at least 600 AP and about 200 spellpower Crit can range widely here since +spellpower gear tends to generally not have melee crit. I'd shoot for at least 15% melee crit to be on the safe side.
What Should I Shoot For Healing Gear as an Enhancement Shaman?
Now, every shaman who melee dps's at some time or another will be required to heal. Most often this occurs once you start raiding heavily and you are short on healers. Obviously this will mean that yes, even you as the enhancement super smishy shammie, needs to start building some healing gear. I won't focus too much here on what makes a better individual piece, but I will give a general overview of what many raiding shammies know with slight variations if you'll excuse me as healing does not come as well to me as it does smashing things :D.
If you're just starting out raiding the 40 mans, I'd focus simply on accumulating the Earthfury set. Believe it or not, pre naxx, its our best healing set hands down and it will remain so for all of MC and BWL.
Now, theres several ways you can go about this but I would recommend going with the tried and true method of accumulating 5 Piece Earthfury and 3 Piece Ten Storms for the ultimate healing set.
5 Piece earthfury usually consists of Helmet, Kilt, Chest, Shoulders, and Belt.
3 Piece Ten Storms is the Boots, Gloves, and Bracers.
You'll want to achieve this set as it gives the greatest set bonuses for helping you heal and gives you the most Mana per 5 possible out of these sets.
Which ties into my next point.
Focus primarily on int/stam/mana per 5 stats until you start getting at least 70-80 mana per 5. We have no way to regen mana outside of this stat. We have no talents to improve it and we're the most inneficient healing and casting class so we have to be careful on that. Once you achieve at least this number, then start to focus on +healing power without sacrificing too much of these stats. Thankfully, most pieces that having healing power, also have mana per 5. If theres any piece that can be enchnated with mana per 5, do it. Consult your guild's enchanters on this manner.
Now, for trinkets and weapons.
Obviously if you're healing, you'll want to focus on a good healing staff or 1h + offhander.
Personally, I use Jindo's Judgement from Zul'Grub. It's a very nice healing staff with a good bit of spellpower AND mana per 5; I think it has 14 per 5 last I checked. Another great 2h is Finkle's Lava Dredger. Huge stam and int and a very respectable 9 mana per 5 make this an awsome weapon. Plus it comes with +15 Fire Resistance witch is always good.
Another good alternative is a solid 1h like sorcerous dagger, Aurastone Hammer, Jindo's hexxar, Claw of Chromaggus or something similar, paired with either a good offhand or even better, Malistar's defender for more mana per 5 or Red Dragonscale Protector for more Healing Power. If you can't get these shields, the Zulian Defender from Zul'Gurub, or the Observer's Shield from Dire Maul are awsome starters.
As far as trinkets and rings go they're pretty easy. Score ones that offer any kind of mana per 5 bonus and any kind of +healing or +spellpower bonus you can snag. Things like Enamored Water Spirit, Mindtap Talisman, Your Shendralar Trinket that you get from Turning the Frost Shock and You book to Dire Maul library are good examples.
And there ya go, for an example, check my ctprofile and it should show you an idea of what to get started on.
