Bashes with Wolves: Losing the Hybrid Flavor

Bashes With Wolves is a semi-regular feature that takes a look at the duel-wielding badassery that is the enhancement shaman: news, tips, reviews and more. Is there something you'd like covered? Feel free to drop me a note. Elements guide you!

Hybrid classes have the most representation in World of Warcraft. That's no secret. Seven of the eleven available classes can perform at least two combat roles, while warlocks, rogues, mages and hunters are restricted to damage-dealing. A recent Blizzard Watch article on shamans looked at this distinction as it relates to spec and argued enhancement represents the last true hybrid in game. The idea is that enhancement can perform tasks effectively in combat that overlap multiple roles---healing in this case.

And in truth, it's been one of my favorite attributes of the spec, and why I've been maining the class since the Burning Crusade. I've always enjoyed having the choice to sacrifice a few GCDs of damaging abilities to ensure the raid stayed alive. Who, as a damage dealer, wouldn't love credit for rescuing their entire raid from the brink of death with some well-timed cooldowns? 

Sadly, this is no longer possible. Even though enhancement shaman didn't see much at all in terms of the ability pruning most other classes saw during the weeks approaching Warlords of Draenor, the healing abilities we still have at our disposal feel rather weak. Chain Heal, Healing Tide Totem, and Spirit Link Totem became Restoration-exclusive abilities, stripping enhancement of the majority of its powerful healing cooldowns. I can understand this to a degree: those are pretty significant abilities for a damage-dealer to have. That said, the abilities we've retained---Healing Wave, Healing Rain, Healing Stream Totem, and go-to talent Ancestral Guidance---have had a serious reduction in their effectiveness.  

Simply, they're not very effective.

In stark contrast from Mists of Pandaria, it's difficult to notice much of an effect from Ancestral Guidance, even when lined up with damage-increasing cooldowns. Effective usage has become a lot more situational. An instant-cast Healing Wave is but a drop in the pool that is tank health, and that GCD is almost always better spent on a damaging ability. Healing Rain feels about as powerful as a butterfly fart, but I'll still use it on occasion because it makes the floor look pretty and washes away some of the melee stink. 

The point being: yes, when you look at enhancement on the surface it appears to have an amount of hybrid utility that's unique to the game. However, on closer examination, the effectiveness of the abilities really doesn't warrant their use---unless we just accept that for all these years, enhancement healing utility has just been too powerful. Now, if the raid group is relying on weak heals from their enhancement shaman to stay alive, there's likely a much larger issue at work.

While you can technically still call enhancement a hybrid spec, it's getting to the point where it feels like a hybrid-in-name-only due to the ineffectiveness of the abilities it can lend to the healing side. It leaves the spec feeling like a hollow form of its former self. The healing abilities are still there, but if you're a wise enhancement shaman you'll treat them like sculptures in an art museum. 

Look, but don't touch. 

Bashes With Wolves: Changes Afoot

Bashes With Wolves is a semi-regular feature that takes a look at the duel-wielding badassery that is the enhancement shaman: news, tips, reviews and more. Is there something you'd like covered? Feel free to drop me a note. Elements guide you!

Blizzard continues to share more information on the changes we'll see come Warlords, and though much of it has been general in scope, last Thursday's release was particularly interesting. Quite a while back in another Bashes With Wolves, I took a look at the enhancement shaman toolkit and pondered over what abilities could be cut or combined in response to a tweet by (now former) Lead Systems Designer Greg Street. When reading through Thursday's blog I couldn't help but wonder how this will affect the feel of enhancement shamanism, specifically as it relates to button bloat.

Before I go on, I must qualify that I've considered my enhancement shaman as a main since the Burning Crusade. I've followed the changes between then and now with hungry eagerness. I've been there since the necessary-but-evil requirement to drop three or four totems---one by one---because they provided important buffs, to dropping sets of four totems at once, to the incarnation we have now which sees us dropping most of our totems situationally. I noted in the post linked above that, as the state of enhancement currently stands, we could in theory use more than thirty unique abilities during the course of a boss fight.

And I love that fact.

Maybe I'm weird that way, but being able to toss out a Chain Heal or Healing Rain, Earthgrab or Capacitor Totem, and properly use Stormlash Totem is something I thoroughly enjoy. And from the tone of the last Dev Watercooler, it seems like perhaps much of this kind of class utility---including enhancement's---will be removed or greatly simplified. As Ghostcrawler said in the tweet, there will be tears, and I'm almost sure I'll count myself among those shedding them.

But it's ok; I'm not mad and whatever happens, I'll get over it quickly.

While I made a handful of suggestions about how I thought enhancement shamanism could be simplified without gutting it too much (though I didn't touch on my pre-pot>Blood Fury>Elemental Mastery>Feral Spirit>Stormstrike>Ascendance>Stormblast>Fire Elemental Totem>Stormlash Totem burst macro), there are some tools I'd really, really like to keep.

Let us keep some healing utility

I really like being the player who can help out our healers when in a tough spot. Whether it's dropping a raid-wide healing totem, popping Ancestral Guidance, or simply tossing out a Maelstrom Weapon x5 Chain Heal or Healing Rain, I like having that choice---even at the cost of my own DPS. But based on comments in the Water Cooler, I have to assume that at least some of these options will be going away for enhancement. I just hope they don't strip all of it from the toolkit.

Let us keep some CC utility

I'm not so much referring to Hex here as I am Earthgrab and Capacitor totems, and even Frost Shock to an extent. Again, this appeals to my desire to be a jack-of-all trades as an enhancement shaman, so deep down I know that some of it will likely land on the chopping block---if it hasn't already. Still, I hope enhancement will get to see more than just Hex on our toolbars come Warlords. 

Let us keep most of our totems

We already know they'll be removing Stormlash. To me, that makes some sense. As a mini-Bloodlust/Heroism, it's normally used in burst combos like the one I've listed above, and often only once throughout the course of a boss fight. Still, there's not a totem enhancement shaman currently have that I don't use with regularity---save for Grounding Totem, but I swear I'd even use that often if I PvP'd. As I've pointed out in the past, I believe there are several cases where the effect of two totems can be rolled into one, but I really like having options. To me, it's what being a shaman has always been about. 

In closing

On Blizzard's side of the coin, I understand the desire as well as the need for more simplicity, as it can be quite daunting to new and veteran players alike. My familiarity and love for the enhancement spec was developed over several years of play. So I'm a bit biased. Still, I just can't shake the feeling that if the enhancement shaman toolkit is stripped too much, we'll be dueling simultaneously with feelings of boredom and helplessness. And that, surely, is not what being an enhancement shaman is all about.

Bashes with Wolves: Enhancement toolkit in the Vale of Eternal Sorrows

It's been a while since I took a brief look at the enhancement shaman toolkit to highlight some of the unique utility they bring to the group environment. I'm having a lot of fun in the Siege of Orgimmar breaking out that utility, whether it's helping with a healing boost when we're putting our healers to the test or something simple, but appreciated, like jumping on one of the Iron Juggernaut's Crawler Mines -- though I have only tested this in Flex, so your own results may vary.

The Vale of Eternal Sorrows contains the first four bosses in the 14-boss Siege of Orgrimmar raid. Let's take a look at how the enhancement shaman can approach these initial fights.

Immerseus

Talent Choices
1: Astral Shift/Stone Bulwark
2: Earthgrab Totem
3. Totemic Persistance/Call of the Elements
4: Elemental Mastery
5: Rushing Streams/Ancestral Guidance
6. Unleashes Elements/Primal Elementalist/Elemental Blast

For T1 talents, I prefer taking Astral Shift since it's usually off CD for the first handful of times Immerseus splits and reabsorbs the puddles. However, near the end of the fight Stone Bulwark may prove a better choice for some players depending on raid healing needs, since it can be used more frequently -- players who do this should consider Call of the Elements in T3.

You should be able to take care of much of your own healing, if needed, during the split phases. Earthgrab Totem is the logical T2 choice given that it works wonderfully on hostile Sha Puddles. As enhancement, we'll be right next to Sha Puddles when they did, which provides and increased in damage done vs. other Sha Puddles.

I prefer Elemental Mastery almost always as my T4 talent unless gearing/set bonuses dictate a different talent pulls significantly ahead in damage increase. For healing utility in T5, go with what your healers need. Rushing Streams will provide passive healing to two raid members throughout the fight, but Ancestral Guidance is also a great way to help your healers quickly return the group to full health after a split phase by popping it as soon as the boss becomes attackable.

Your T6 talent is really dictated by the gear you're wearing. I use Icy Veins for reference, but feel free to rely on your own resources.

Glyphs: Glyph of Healing Storm, Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem, Glyph of Flame Shock, Glyph of Spirit Walk, Glyph of Capacitor Totem

While each shaman major glyph could be useful for this fight with the exception of Purging, the ones listed above are the most ideal -- you just need to decide which three will be the best for your raid. If you'll be tossing out extra heals, definitely take Healing Storm. By default, I almost always take Flame Shock and Fire Elemental Totem, but if you're going to be running well across the room to handle puddles during a split phase, consider Spirit Walk. Capacitor Totem may be used situationally, especially if you have a large group of Sha Puddles in close proximity.

Key Abilities: Ghost Wolf to move around the floor quickly when needed. Shamanistic Rage coupled with Astral Shift translates to minimal damage taken during a split phase. Our group normally uses Bloodlust at the start of the fight.

The Fallen Protectors

Talents
1: Astral Shift/Stone Bulwark
2: N/A
3. Totemic Persistance/Call of the Elements
4: Elemental Mastery
5: Rushing Streams/Ancestral Guidance
6. Unleashes Elements/Primal Elementalist/Elemental Blast

T1 talents are a dime a piece to me. While Stone Bulwark is an interesting choice as it will be up for most, if not all of Sun's casts of Calamity, I usually stick with Astral Shift. Stick with Earthgrab Totem for this fight -- though you probably won't use it -- as they other choices do not provide any utility. I keep Totemic Persistance, but Call of the Elements may again be a decent choice if you've selected Stone Bulwark as your T1 talent. Elemental Mastery is less of a passive choice for me on this fight because of how I use it with T5 talent Ancestral Guidance, which can provide a nice healing boost at a critical time.

Again, T6 will be largely depending on your gear and preference.

Glyphs: Glyph of Healing Storm, Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem, Glyph of Flame Shock, Glyph of Chain Lightning

Each major glyph has potential utility here, again, it will depend on your preference and what the raid needs. I tend to toss out quite a few heals in this fight, since we're currently testing our healers in Flex, and tend to stick with Flame Shock and Fire Elemental. However, if your group is having any trouble at all with Sun's transition phase, Chain Lightning can provide additional AoE damage.

Key Abilities: Shamanistic Rage couple with Astral Shift translates to minimal damage taken during intense parts of the fight. I'm able to "tank" He's Mark of Anguish for a good while, if needed, when under the effect of these damage-reducing abilities. Wind Shear for interrupting Gloom. Our group normally casts Bloodlust at the start of the fight, though some groups choose to save it for the final burn phase.

Norushen

Talents
1: Astral Shift/Stone Bulwark
2: N/A
3. Totemic Persistance/Call of the Elements
4: Elemental Mastery
5: Rushing Streams/Ancestral Guidance
6. Unleashes Elements/Primal Elementalist/Elemental Blast

Stone Bulwark may be a good T1 choice given the frequency of raid AoE damage coupled with the frequency in which you can use the ability. Players making this choice should consider Call of the Elements in T3. Your T2 talent choice won't really affect this fight, but I stick with Earthgrab in case I get the attention of a large add. Elemental Mastery is again my personal choice based on how I play the spec. For T5, I always go with Ancestral Guidance, since there can be nasty raid-wide AoE damage -- being able to put out a decent about of HPS for a controlled period can be extremely helpful on this fight.

Glyphs: Glyph of Healing Storm, Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem, Glyph of Flame Shock, Glyph of Feral Spirit

The passive healing from Flame Shock can really help here. If you're supporting with heals, always go with Healing Storm. Otherwise Fire Elemental will provide some extra DPS when you need it, or Feral Spirit will keep you alive during a healing-intensive part of the fight.

Key Abilities: Shamanistic Rage coupled with Astral Shift translates to minimal damage taken during intense parts of the fight. Wind Shear for interrupting the smaller adds that surround Norushen. We use Bloodlust around 50% when all of our designated DPS are purified.

Sha of Pride

Talents
1: Astral Shift/Stone Bulwark
2: Earthgrab Totem
3. Totemic Persistance/Call of the Elements
4: Elemental Mastery
5: Rushing Streams/Ancestral Guidance/Conductivity
6. Unleashes Elements/Primal Elementalist/Elemental Blast

You may be noticing a pattern -- I almost always choose Astral Shift simply because I love how much damage it prevents. And with it on a 90-second CD since 5.4, I just can't pass it up.
You can use your Earthgrab Totem to keep the small adds that spawn in one place, but your raid should be stacked tightly anyway, possibly negating any need for doing so. Also, super-smart shamans will time their Capacitor Totem to go off just after the small adds have spawned.

I'll still with Totemic Persistence in case I ever have to drop two water totems to help with heals. T4 is again my personal choice, while I again choose Ancestral Guidance for T5 for the controlled burst heals. However, since the raid is stacked up for the vast majority of this fight, Conductivity should be considered depending on the raid needs.

Glyphs: Glyph of Healing Storm, Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem, Glyph of Flame Shock, Glyph of Chain Lightning, Glyph of Capacitor Totem

Choose what your raid needs here. If you're not helping at all with heals, go with the situational damage-increasing abilities.

Key Abilities: Shamanistic Rage coupled with Astral Shift translates to minimal damage taken during intense parts of the fight. MWx5 Healing Rain may also come into play here -- if you will be helping out this way, consider T5 talent Conductivity. Our group uses Bloodlust at the 30% mark when all accumulated Pride resets.

Good luck...may all of your hits be Windfury procs!

Bashes with Wolves: Enhancement ability purge for the next expansion

I should really make the time to visit Ghostcrawler's Twitter feed more often to read all of his @replies, because that seems to be where many of the juicy bits come from. Even when he's speculating or sharing his own opinion, like when he mentioned removing flying mounts from the game, there's regularly good info that's fun to speculate on. Like a recent reply to a player who felt that new abilities for their class would become too much, i.e. in the next expansion. Ghostcrawler confirmed there will be some changes, and it's likely that "there will be many tears."

Oh boy.

This caused me to take a look at my own enhancement shaman's toolkit...and my word! Perhaps it's because I've been playing the spec as my main since the end of the Burning Crusade, but it hadn't dawned on me that in the course of any given boss fight, an enhancement shaman could use more than 35 unique abilities. I assume it's similar for many classes. I went ahead and listed those abilities as they relate to how I use them, but that bit got a little long so I've left that part out of this post.

In summary, enhancement shaman must use 3 abilities just to prepare themselves to fight. In their opening burst sequence, which does draw on their regular rotation, they're using 6 more abilities. Depending on the situation (single target, multiple targets, healing intensive, etc) their regular rotation will contain the potential for 7 more unique abilities. As it currently stands, their utility toolkit---heals, totems, and unique actions---add another 19 (or more) abilities to the mix. Let's see if we can't whittle that down in preparation for the next expansion.

The Purge

Granted, an enhancement shaman may not use all of their 35+ abilities in fight, but they'll surely use a majority of them. Keeping the next expansion in mind, which is rumored to take us from level 90-100, players can assume there will be a new ability or two for their class. But I'd argue we can't continue to have new abilities without purging or combining some of the old ones. I'd entertain:

Default weapon imbues. Enhancement shaman would no longer actively set weapon imbues; the main-hand weapon will be auto-imbued with Windfury Weapon while the off-hand will be auto-imbued with Flametongue Weapon. To avoid confusion, enhancement shaman would become dual-wield-only. Rockbiter and Frostbrand weapons are removed from the game. The talent Frozen Power now augments a player's Flame Shock to root the enemy in ice for 5 second and slow their movement speed by 30% for an additional 3 seconds.

Frost Shock is removed from the game. The effects of the ability have been rolled up into the talent Frozen Power and now affect the shaman's Flame Shock.

Magma Totem and Searing Totem combine into Searing Magma Totem, now a passive ability. The totem repeatedly attacks an enemy within 25 yards and causes Fire damage to all creatures within 8 yards every 2 seconds. Additionally, the totem is no longer dropped on its own, and is summoned/refreshed each time the shaman applies Flame Shock to a target.

Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning combine into Lightning Chain. The shaman releases a chain of lightning, damaging the enemy target and jumping to additional nearby enemies.

Lightning Shield is no longer actively applied. It's a default buff for enhancement shaman similar to how they currently provide buffs.

Unleash Elements becomes a passive ability. Its affect applies automatically, triggering a 15 second cooldown.

Healing Stream Totem becomes Restoration-only. Shaman are left with movement freeing/restriction totems, Capacitor Totem, Grounding Totem and their large-CD elemental totems.

Bind Elemental and Hex merge to become Elemental Bonds. Binds the hostile target for up to 50 secs. The bound target is unable to move, attack or cast spells. Any damage caused will release the target. Only one target can be bound at a time. Works on humanoids, beasts and elementals.

Purge and Cleanse Spirit combine into Purification. Removes all Curse effects from a friendly target or removes 1 beneficial magic effect from an enemy target.

If we go with what's listed above, it would reduce the number of possible enhancement abilities by more than a third. What's more, it removes several abilities from the shaman's main rotation, potentially freeing up those spots for new abilities in the future. It also prevents some simple user errors, like forgetting to apply Lightning Shield or use the correct weapon imbues.

Do you think the enhancement toolkit can use some trimming? Or if you have a different main class, what changes or cuts would you make?

If  you'd like to see how this could look for Shadow Priests, head over to UnlimitedBlack's blog Power Word: Remix.

WoW Weekly: 5.3 & Me & You

WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.  

Truth be told, last week I didn't really care if patch 5.3 was just over the horizon. I've had enough trouble getting through 5.2; just didn't have the stomach for more dailies, and stabilizing a raid has turned out to be rather difficult. And, of course, been feeling a little burnout in the midst of it all. So I'm kind of surprised that 5.3, with its "smaller" amount of content, has me excited.

Done

Enhancement seems stronger. Perhaps I was imagining things, but I seem to be cutting through mobs with a bit more ease. And that makes sense, given the various buffs enhancement received with the arrival of the patch. Our burst is absolutely brutal -- though that statement comes strictly from a PvE perspective. Enhancement has always been fun, and this patch only gives us more reason to stick with it. Check out an insightful comment made by Dahlese on an earlier enhancement-focused 5.3 post if you'd like a refresh on talent choices. Sometimes my speculation doesn't align with the facts and it's nice to have people point it out in a clear, friendly manner!

Battlefield: Barrens. Having avoided most of the detailed spoilers for this patch, I genuinely enjoyed the story from both sides. There are differing opinions on the volume and quality of the content in this patch, but for me, the fact there are no new daily grinds is wonderful. I'd rather not do dailies for as long as I play this game. I'd prefer it were dailies never a major part of a content patch again. Not that weekly quests are new, but this is something that should be further explored.

What if we were given sets of weekly quests instead of daily quests? It's not like the game has to require player participation in order to advance the story. Instead, they can tie it to the calendar. Every week or two we're given a new set of quests that serve to advance the story. That'd be cool. If there must be dailies, focus less on their development and more on the story-advancing quest lines.

I think that's exactly what we're going to see with this patch.

LFR insta-queues for DPS. Not quite true. But I'm now queuing as restoration and rolling on enhancement gear. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

Looking Forward To

Heroic scenarios. By all accounts, they are a lot of fun. I haven't really delved too deeply into scenarios at all in MoP. Sure, I have my Scenaturdist achievement, but that's pretty much as far as it goes. The two scenarios I ran to get to the Barrens were a lot of fun, and friends report that heroic scenarios are a welcome challenge.

Raiding with Leashes II. I'm a bit of a fan of this new pet battle fad, and having had fun with the first iteration of this achievement, I welcome this with open arms while anticipating this isn't the last time we'll see pets added to old raids. Now if only I could remember how to get through Kara (thanks Lio!).

Finishing the Throne of Thunder. It's great we're seeing fresh content more quickly than we have in the past, I won't argue against that that. But I feel there's a sweet spot they've overshot. Perhaps it's just me, but I wouldn't mind a little more time---two, three weeks or more---before MoP's patches have released. I take that back: 5.1 seemed just about right with the last two coming a bit too quickly to where it seems I'm always playing catch up.

Our guild has never had a more difficult time stabilizing and fielding a consistent raid. And the reasons aren't dramatic: real life is happening. We're aging, gaining more responsibilities. It's a good, natural thing. But at some point, Blizzard will have to address this, too.

How about you? What are you liked, and not liked in this patch? Is there anything you know you'll absolutely not touch?

Bashes with Wolves: 5.3 brings the powah

Come Patch 5.3, enhancement's getting enhanced, baby. Aww yeah.

There's rarely anything wrong with enhancement shaman, right? If you love playing one like I do, you know exactly what I mean. Leading up to a major content patch, we head over to the official notes and scroll down to the Class Changes section. Mage...keep scrolling...Priest...Rogue...keep scrolling...Warlock. Hmm. Guess shammy's are fine! Maybe I just want to believe they're fine, but it really doesn't seem like our class is often rocked by huge changes in the midst of expansions. Sure, we've gone from using four GCDs to drop totems to dropping four totems at once to now dropping them one at a time situationally -- but other than that, our rotation has been largely unchanged since Wrath of the Lich King.

That said, the DPS charts over at World of Logs don't show enhancement shaman near the top. It's not that we can't DPS. We can, and do quite well. It's just that there are several other classes that do exceptionally well. And that's fine. We bring enough of our own utility to the game to earn a spot on the team. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised when I saw that in 5.3, we get buffed! Nothing huge, but significant enough so that we should see a small boost to our average DPS. Let's take a look.

Boundless Wolves
Our Spirit Wolves will be immune to roots and snares. No more badly-timed uses of this signature enhancement cooldown. Your wolves were born to run free!

I Buff You, Stormstrike and Lava Lash
Both Stormstrike and Lava Lash are having their damage increased. Stormstrike will deal 450% weapon damage, up from 375%, and Lava Lash now does 300% weapon damage, up from 250%. Nice, right?

Brain Runs Faster
Perhaps someone will get that joke, but Mental Quickness will convert 65% of our attack power into spell power, up from 55%. Well all-friggin-right. Most of our abilities will benefit from this change. Quite awesome, overall.

And Then, a Curious Change
Lightning bolt can now be cast while moving. Huh. Needless to say, there are some movement-heavy fights in this expansion, especially for melee players. At first, I sort of glossed over this change and failed to see any significance, but having had some time to reflect, I've decided that it'll be fun as heck to keep my DPS rolling just a bit when on the run, especially when my Flame/Earth Shock is on cooldown. Since it's only Lightning Bolt, and not Chain Lightning or even a heal, Spiritwalker's Grace will still be the go-to in movement-heavy situations for elemental and restoration shaman. But we don't talk about those specs around here.

Because of the change to Lightning Bolt, Glyph of Unleashed Lightning becomes useless, and thus will be removed from the game. Glyph of Lightning Shield, which causes Lightning Shield to reduce the amount of damage taken by 10% for 6 seconds after Lightning Shield is triggered, will be added in its place. No big deal, right? Wrong. Enhancers choosing this glyph will take reduced damage quite often throughout an encounter. It's a miniscule reduction for sure, but over time adds up and should be regularly considered for a Major Glyph slot. While I normally roll with Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem, Glyph of Flame Shock, and Glyph of Healing Storm, it's a clear frontrunner if you're not concerning yourself with tossing up insta-heals or HOTing yourself to help out your raid's healers. A combo of Fire Elemental, Flame Shock and Lightning Shield sounds sexy to me.

All in all, this patch will bring a nice little boost for enhancement shaman across the board. No nerfs, no weird changes, just a bit of a damage increase and the ability cast Lightning Bolt while moving. I'm anxious to see how the changes play out on live servers.

Read the official notes here, and til next time, keep bashing!

Did someone say [Triple Spec, Joyful Bane of the Alt Seeker]?

@adamholisky We haven't announced triple spec. With that in mind, take anything data-mine-able with a grain o' salt.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) March 25, 2013

source

Okee-doke. Time to come clean. When I saw that the option for a third talent specialization had been data-mined, my initial reaction was oh god, please no. I really don't like the idea of a tri-spec option, because of...and I couldn't really come up with reasons I felt were objective enough to toss out there. Twenty-four hours later, I'm just feeling weird, but that's par for the course. How might this be different than duel spec? It's not, really. It will allow players additional freedoms when it comes to playing their character of choice.

I don't think you can argue that this is bad, or detrimental to the game, but someone will. Or probably already has. Oh well. I definitely believe it has the potential to alter/effect playstyles, and that's what I look at below. This one's very much internal-facing and opinion-based. You've been warned.

Dawn of the mainoholic
When I google "MoP alt," the first auto-complete suggestion I get is "unfriendly." Ghostcrawler even stated in November '12 that MoP was "designed to be compelling without alts." I would argue just that: MoP is compelling without alts. I've spent the vast majority of playtime this expansion on the Main, and I still have plenty to do. Several of my friends have multiple toons at max level, but unlike me, most don't raid weekly, play the auction house, blog about WoW, (try to) run a guild, or get distracted by pet battles to the point where you feel compelled to write a series of detailed guides. 

How does a third specialization further affect the time I spend leveling alts? Frankly, the leveling of alts likely won't happen. Which is ok...I guess -- good god, what am I saying?! Bidding farewell to alts is a GOOD thing! I've really no right to complain if Blizzard's designed a game that keeps me interested to the point where I literally get hundreds of hours of enjoyment from playing one character. If a third spec is really right around the corner, I don't see why realm/account-wide professions can't be lagging just behind on the horizon. Mark my words. Really. You can bookmark this blog if you like.

Joking aside, I'll opt for a third specialization on the main and make sure his gear on all fronts is viable enough to hold his own in a raid environment. I'm actually kind of looking forward to finally playing as elemental! 

I'm rolling for my off-off-spec

While loot rules in 5-mans aren't really spelled out anywhere, it's generally acceptable for players to roll need for main spec items and at least ask before rolling need on off-spec items. But come 5.3, my shammy's going to want to two sets of intellect gear in addition to his enhancement set. Might triple spec mean the LFR loot system will be transplanted into 5-mans, where we're no longer rolling against our groupmates, but instead rolling against the system itself? 

Three specs may signal greater competition for loot -- at least in 5-mans -- if Blizzard doesn't remove that competition altogether, as I suggested above. Unless Valor/Justice accumulation rates increase and caps are removed or loosened, players won't be able to count on those methods to gear up their third spec at a quick rate, either.

Wardrobe needed more than ever

At minimum, we need more bag space. Pie-in-the-sky? It's time to implement a wardrobe-like feature to address the fact that a good portion bag space is being gobbled up by gear sets. I'm making a serious effort to remove unneeded items from my bank on a monthly basis and tossing unused gear into void storage. Still, there are currently less than 10 free slots in my bank, and barely more than that free in my bags. Between a couple of vanity items, a stack or two of profession mats, my healing set, a PvP enhancement set, raid consumables, food and the like, I'm constantly dealing with full bags, which is a tiny, annoying PITA. 

Not the features you are looking for...or are they?

Could...could this be the special, unannounced feature our favorite crab alluded to in January? Eh, I kind of hope not. And it's not because I don't think triple spec is cool. It's tres cool, but not on par with what I consider to be a major feature. Then again, Ghostcrawler did essentially say that some people would be all like "Yeah!" while others would be all like "Meh." We'll find out definitively within a couple of months, but if MoP's equivalent to Cataclysm's LFR is the option for a third spec, it would mark the first time Blizzard released a major feature for the game that I felt didn't live up to the hype.

After further thought, I'm 90% positive that triple-speccing is not Ghostcrawler's unannounced feature. Sourcing my gut on this one. 

Conclusion...made ya look?
Now, giving the timing of the triple spec discovery, many players are wondering if this might be an April Fool's joke. Given Blizzard's penchant for perpetrating 4/1 jokes on its playerbase, I'd have to say...no. No, this isn't a joke. While it might make more sense to implement the third spec option at the start of an expansion, Blizzard can do what they want. Plus, when it comes to April Fool's jokes, Blizzard tends to be a bit more over-the-top. A third spec doesn't seem very outrageous at all. In fact, it's something players have been asking for quite some time.

Plain and simple, I'm looking forward to rolling elemental. I'm also looking forward to being able to fill a ranged DPS spot in our progression raid, since we tend to find ourselves a bit melee heavy. How 'bout you? Do you think it's a joke? Either way, is it something you're looking forward to?

Bashes with Wolves: Enhancement shaman talent toolkit

It may sound like I'm bragging when I say I've counted enhancement as my main since the Burning Crusade, but I'm not. It's a fact! I love playing enhance, period. The hybrid nature of brute force and spell damage has always felt right to me. In MoP, talents are much more situational, meaning we have the ability to change talents as the mechanics call for it. For questing, raiding, and even PvP, players have choices.

Let's take a deeper look at the talent tree and be all the shaman we can be. We're going to know when to pop Ancestral Swiftness to help out our healers, and when dropping Windwalk Totem will be an asset to the raid. That's right. We're going to be the most useful badasses this game has ever seen.

Tier One

The life-prolongers.

Nature's Guardian: Choose this talent if you don't want to worry about hitting another button for survivability situations. Given that it can trigger once every 30 seconds, it's actually pretty good. The catch is that once triggered, you need to be healed up quickly, as the health gained from the ability is temporary.

Stone Bulwark Totem: This will absorb damage for 30 seconds, and being that it has a 1-minute CD, that's a decent amount of uptime. Fights with constant, annoying damage call for this totem as it can provide some relief to the healers.

Astral Shift: Though a relatively short duration and long cooldown, this is my go-to talent. When paired with Shamanistic Rage, it can mitigate some serious damage. It's been good to me when out questing, and good to me in raids.


While the choice within this tier is really up to player preference, in some situations, an ideal choice will be clear. As shaman, it's up to us to recognize when that is.

Tier Two

I like to move it, move it. Movement!

Frozen Power: Truth is I don't ever use this talent. Perhaps it emerges as the clear winner in PvP situations, but its limitation lies in the fact that it only CCs one target. Shaman already have a single-target CC with Hex, and there's another talent in this tier that will root multiple targets at once.

Earthgrab Totem: While personally I feel the claim it "ensnares the legs of all enemies within 10 yards" is a bit grandiose, I often choose this talent. It's great for escaping a sticky situation when questing, though its use in raids is rather limited.

Windwalk Totem: This one actually grants a short duration of immunity to movement-impairing effects. If you raid, I'm sure you can think of several scenarios where this might be helpful. Since I don't strategically PvP, I can't comment on its usefulness in battlegrounds and arenas.

Overall, your choice in this tier will depend on this situation. Nine out of ten times, I go with Earthgrab when questing, though rely on Windwalk for some raids fights. Is it necessary for those raid fights? No, it is not. However, it can provide a small quality-of-life boost, even if for only six seconds, that your fellow raiders will appreciate.

Tier Three

And now, a perk for your totems.

Call of the Elements: This can be useful for reasons related to your Tier One and Two choices, as this ability essentially allows shaman to drop back-to-back Earthgrab/Windwalk, Healing Stream, Capacitor and Stone Bulwark totems, to name a few. 

Totemic Restoration: I most often use this talent because of Fire Elemental Totem. If I ever have to hit my "OH S%$T" sequence after taking on more than I can handle, the threat is usually neutralized within 30 seconds, meaning if I recall my totems I'll be refunded a significant amount on the elemental's CD.

Totemic Projection: Very situational, but I have heard tales of its merit PvP. From a PvE standpoint, shaman would only choose this if they anticipate the need to move a LOT during the course of a fight.


I run with Totemic Restoration 90% of the time. It doesn't add another button to my bars, and I don't see too much use in the other two choices as they pertain to my playstyle. I will admit that Call of the Elements probably has more utility than I'm giving it credit for.

Tier Four

Go forth and augment thy damage, young shaman.

Elemental Mastery: A personal Bloodlust every minute and a half. Not bad. Very good on fights where you temporarily deal increased damage. Though situational, skilled shaman will choose this in situations that will benefit them the most. Think Jin'rokh, Elegon & Gara'jal.

Ancestral Swiftness: The passive haste is interesting, but its other function doesn't appeal much to me, though I will choose this when I'm healing in my offspec. Know it's not wrong for enhancers to choose this talent. I just don't prefer it.

Echo of the Elements: The "choose it and forget it" talent for this tier. 




By all accounts, and with all else equal, these talents perform similarly, though certain fight mechanics may lend well to specific choices as alluded above. I choose Echo in all cases except for those where I do increased damage for short durations during a fight, like Elegon and Gara'jal.

Tier Five

Cause it's not enhancement without the heals.

Healing Tide Totem: Drop it and forget about it; powerful heals for 10 seconds with the drawback being its 3-minute CD.

Ancestral Guidance: Heals the raid, but very dependent on the shaman's DPS. Players must make sure they are in a position to do a good amount of damage for its 10-second duration to ensure this talent lives up to the other choices in this tier. The shorter CD is also appealing.

Conductivity: Can be good in situations where the group is often stacked together AND your healer could use some extra help.



These talents should perform relatively the same when used correctly. While Healing Tide might seem like an easy choice, I've really had a lot of fun with Ancestral Guidance. Time its use with a burst CD or two and we can easily put out 150k damage per second. Then 40% of that number gets copied to nearby allies as healing every second for 10 seconds? Yes please. During one particular nasty end to Feng kill where we had no healers alive, I popped my damage CDs with Ancestral Guidance and essentially negated the damage done to the raid for one entire channeling of Arcane Velocity.

Tier Six

The capstone: choose a way.

Unleashed Fury: The "choose it and forget about it" talent in this tier; however, choosing this means you should use Unleash Elements whenever it's off CD.

Primal Elementalist: Trying saying that fast, and five times in a row! Prollomollolumpulus. That's what I get on the second try. Anyway, this makes your elementals look cooler and act even more OP.

Elemental Blast: Adds an ability to the shaman rotation that didn't exist prior to MoP. If you haven't tried this and find yourself bored with the traditional rotation, or are feeling adventurous, check this out. You'll want to make it a priority and use it whenever it is off CD.


According to other resources I read, such as Icy Veins, these all perform equally when played right, with Primal Elementalist pulling ahead for shaman in T15 gear. So, for the most of us, there's isn't a "best" choice currently.

I'll admit, I am having a fun time with the talent system and how it's set up for situational utility. It allows players to make choices that are smart, even if optional, so they can play their character in a significantly different way than someone else. Not only do I have my personal setups for when I'm out questing, but I'm able to swap in specific talents if a boss fight mechanic calls for it. And I really like having that choice.

What about you? Do you take full advantage of the more niche abilities in your talent tree?

(all icon images credit wowwiki)