Totem Talk: Leveling Enhancement 41-60
by Rich Maloy 
Apr 17th 2010 at 6:00PM
Axes, maces, lightning, fire, frost and wolves -- and best of all, Windfury. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance at Big Hit Box, pens the enhance side of Totem Talk and leads the guild Big Crits as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby.
As we get deeper into levels, the new spells from trainers taper off and we start to pick up all the fun stuff from talent points. In the next 20 levels we're going to finish out the enhancement tree, pick up some great talents and have a ton of fun blowing up elite mobs.
But before we get there. we do have to get out of the level 40 doldrums. We left off with one point in dual wield and a spec of 0/31/0. At this point, you're probably missing as much as you're hitting with dual wield. If you were to spend one more level with a two-hander or a one-hander + shield, no one would fault you for it. It's really only at level 43 that enhancement starts to take off. Let's dive in and continue.
Before we start with level 42, put that level 41 talent point into Dual Wield Specialization. The extra hit is a god-send.
Levels 42 and 43
If you weren't dual wielding before, you can by level 42 and absolutely should be by level 43. If you were cheating with an ele spec before (for shame!), then you cheaters can safely move over to enhance for all the glory.
Talent points: 2/3 Dual Wield specialization, then Stormstrike!
Spell upgrades: Fire Nova, Water Shield, Fire Resistance Totem
Kill strategy: Dual Wield with slow weapons in each hand (if the weapon speed is above 2.0, then it's considered slow; most are in the 2.4-2.7 range). I still go Windfury as my imbue on both weapons at his point until level 45; you'll see why when we get there. If you don't want to run in and start attacking like a crazed battlemage, then use Lightning Bolt (LB) to pull, then Flame Shock (FS) to apply your DoT. Stormstrike (SS) right away and use SS on every cooldown, then use Earth Shock (ES) on every cooldown. Keep using SS and ES until the mob is dead. Blow these mobs up! If you're in a dungeon and on a boss, the only change is to reapply FS when the DoT ticks out.
Levels 44 and 45
We add in another weapon attack and change our imbues here.
Talent points: 3/3 Dual Wield specialization, then Lava Lash
Spell upgrades: Lightning Bolt, Stoneskin Totem, Lesser Healing Wave, Nature Resistance Totem
Kill Strategy: We change our imbues and for the first time start to get into the convolution that is the enhancement shaman spell rotation. Imbues should be from here and forever forward (in PvE) be Windfury on main hand and Flametongue on off hand. The spell "rotation" for enhancement is more of a priority system: go down the list of available spells and use the first one that is off cooldown. Then start over at the top for the next spell. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Here's our rotation: SS, FS, ES, LL.
What does that mean? Use Stormstrike every time it is available as your highest priority. Use Flame Shock if SS is off cooldown and if there is not a FS DoT up on the target. If SS is on cooldown and FS is on the target, then use ES. Finally, if you've used SS and a shock (FS or ES), then use LL. For the complete, level 80 version of the enhancement shaman rotation, see the article I wrote about it.
Levels 46 and 47
With the two big spells (SS & LL) on our bars, we can start tearing through the levels now.
Talent points: Improved Stormstrike 1 and 2
One of the key things with leveling is reduced downtime. Taking 2/2 Improved Stormstrike means active mana regen, which means more up time, especially if you can heal up with (Lesser or regular) Healing Wave between pulls and regain mana during fights.
Spell upgrades: Flametongue Weapon, Frost Shock, Magma Totem, Mana Spring Totem, Chain Heal
Levels 48 and 49
Talent points: Static Shock 1 and 2
Diving in to Static Shock means that Lightning Shield (LS) is the shield of choice. LS versus Water Shield at this point is a personal preference and is a trade-off between downtime and damage output, but I highly recommend taking the extra damage instead of extra mana based on what we'll get at level 50.
Spell upgrades: Healing Wave, Earth Shock, Lightning Shield, Stoneclaw Totem, Ancestral Spirit, Frostbrand Weapon, Water Shield, Flametongue Totem, Chain Lightning
Levels 50 and 51
Talent points: Shamanistic Rage, Mental Quickness
Oh Shammy Rage! Damage reduction! Mana regen! We've got it all wrapped up in one spell on a 60-second cooldown. Keybind it and use it often.
Mental Quickness bridges the gap for us between attack power and spell power. We'll dive in here with one point now and a full 3/3. This also means that + int uncommon quality (green) gear becomes more viable for us as we level.
Spell upgrades: Lightning Bolt, Searing Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Earthliving Weapon, Windfury Weapon
New spell: Call of the Spirits. This is our third and final totem combo spell.
Glyph: We get a second minor glyph here. What do you want to do? Hearth more often? Water walk more? Water breathe more? Ankh without the Ankh? Your call. For me, a 7.5-minute hearthstone seems key to reducing leveling downtime.
Levels 52 and 53
Talent points: Finish out Mental Quickness to 3/3
Spell upgrades: Flame Shock, Strength of Earth Totem, Fire Nova, Lesser Healing Wave
/yawn
Levels 54 and 55
Talent points: Static Shock 3/3 and Maelstrom Weapon 1/5
Are you excited? You should be. Of all the spells and talents, Maelstrom Weapon (MW) is one of the coolest. Though I'm not really a lore guy, I look at Maelstrom Weapon as a buildup of energy, a charged capacitor of sorts wherein we battlemages enhancement shamans store our energy, only to unleash it in a charged ball of electricity. BAM! Either that or we're just shuffling our feet on the carpet, a lot -- and since the carpeting in WoW is sparse, I'm going with the charged capacitor theory.
We only have one point in the talent right now, so we'll not see a lot of five-stacks, but let's take a moment to talk about MW and how we can work it into our rotation. It's simple: when you get five charges of MW, then cast LB; this is referred to as MW5_LB. It's a "free" cast of a cast time spell, meaning that while it costs mana and a global cooldown, it doesn't reset or interrupt your swing timer.
As a general rule of thumb, only use MW for LBs when you have five stacks. But when it comes to healing and you're in a tight spot, MW3_HW (Healing Wave with three stacks of MW), MW4_HW or MW5_HW will save your hide if you're in trouble. Get LB and HW keybound and keep them handy.
Spell upgrades: Stoneskin Totem, Frost Resistance Totem, Chain Heal
Kill strategy: The only change here is to put MW5_LB at the top of your priority rotation. That means your rotation looks like this: MW5_LB, SS, FS, ES, LL, LS. But you're not getting to five stacks that often, are you? Patience, young padawan.
Levels 56 and 57
Talent points: Maelstrom Weapon 2 and 3
Spell upgrades: Healing Wave, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Shield, Flametongue Weapon, Water Shield, Magma Totem, Mana Spring Totem, Chain Lightning
Levels 58 and 59
Talent points: Maelstrom Weapon 4 and 5
Feels good, doesn't it? MW almost all the time. Welcome to enhancement post-3.0.
Spell upgrades: Stoneclaw Totem, Frost Shock, Frostbrand Weapon, Flametongue Totem, Fire Resistance Totem
Outland, ho! Get yourself out to the Outland and start killing ... boars. Fel boars! But yeah, moar boars.
Level 60
Talent points: Feral Spirit
I've been driving us down this path as quickly as possible. We could have fooled around with talent points in other things or moving sideways across the shaman tree into ele now, but when it comes to killer 51-point talents, few top Spirit Wolves. Our pets are available for 45 seconds every three minutes bring a taunt, a stun and a bonds-breaking run speed boost -- oh yeah, and a ton of damage that scales actively as we increase our stats mid-fight (meaning as you get trinket, spell, talent or item procs, your wolves benefit actively). This is the opposite of the Fire and Earth Elemental Totems, whose stats are based when you plant the totem and do not scale afterwards.
Spell upgrades: Healing Wave, Earth Sock, Flame Shock, Searing Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Ancestral Spirit, Healing Stream Totem, Lesser Healing Wave, Nature Resistance Totem, Windfury Weapon
Kill strategy: Because of the sheer awesomeness of the wolves, you want to use them as often as possible while leveling. While they're out, go crazy; pull mobs, let them run wild, leap over and kill more, just be sure to get at least one hit on a mob they're attacking. If you let your puppies do all the work, you'll not get credit for the kill.
That wraps up this edition of the enhancement leveling guide. We ended up with a spec of 0/51/0 and lots of great core enhancement talents. But before we go, I want to share with you my handy enhancement leveling spreadsheet. I'm a spreadsheet guy and while I prefer Excel, Google Docs does just fine for these sorts of things. Check it out here. Tune in next week for levels 61-70.
May all your hits be crits!
Shaman, follow the path of enhancement with Rich Maloy's leveling guide by starting with with levels 1-20, 21-40, and then continue the journey into levels 61-70.Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
eresin Apr 17th 2010 6:20PM
Woo thanks for the next section. Hi-ho-hi-ho it's off to level to go!
Paladhorn Apr 17th 2010 6:35PM
Where would you recommend best for the 40-50 grind? Out of all the zones, none seem to be dosing me up with major questing, without major travel
Antti Apr 17th 2010 6:57PM
You will have to level 40-50 in about 3 diiferent zones as no one zone in this level will get you 10 levels via questing. Or just level through LFD
eresin Apr 17th 2010 7:00PM
I always like to go between Feralas and Tanaris, with lots of Zul'Farak thrown in :D
brian Apr 17th 2010 7:15PM
I'd like to imagine that with Maelstrom Weapon, you're channeling the intense elemental forces of the Maelstrom vortex itself, gathering the inherent power to you to act as the casting of the spell in your stead, and with the power gathered, let it release in a single burst. Awesome.
...and the guide's good too, I guess :P
Omicron Apr 17th 2010 7:45PM
The most awesome thing about the wolves, you forgot: the lifesteal attacks with Spirit Hunt.
Whenever I am fighting and Maelstrom Weapon just won't proc enough to keep myself healed, or I'm almost out of mana, or the incoming damage is just too great... I pop the wolves, and I'm at full HP when the battle ends. Always. They just stuff you so full of healing, it doesn't matter what's hitting you.
Most "oh shit"-buttons have the downside that when it's time to press them, you've got a good chance to be dead in the next few seconds regardless. But those puppies pull you back from death's doorstep every time, and that's what makes them better than any other cooldown that "just" gives you extra damage output.
Gamer am I Apr 17th 2010 7:54PM
Between Feral Spirit, Shamanistic Rage, Gift of the Naaru, Maelstrom heals, and my trinkets, killing elites is little more than a pastime on my shammy alt.
Dicon Apr 17th 2010 8:06PM
Hi Rich,
Cheers for the guide, I've leveled a shammy from 1-80 as enhancement and its one of the most fun specs to play in wow. I may be outdated on this but your advice under the Level 44- 45 section where you say:
" Imbues should be from here and forever forward (in PvE) be Windfury on main hand and Flametongue on off hand. "
At 80 i agree (maybe even from 65 depending on talents) as you'd have 5/5 Elemental Fury in the elemental tree which gives Flametongue the edge over windfury and weapons speeds are preferred to be as close to 3sec as possible 2.6-2.8, picking a 2.4sec weapon over a lesser ilevel 2.6 weapon can lead to a dps loss
" (if the weapon speed is above 2.0, then it's considered slow; most are in the 2.4-2.7 range)"
And one last thing i noticed (and this may be viewed as nit-picking but to save mana and reduce downtime while leveling ill say it) is you put FS on the top of your priority list for soloing mobs (not bosses), since FS will not finish off its ticks on most mobs your attacking it is be better to just use ES
As i said its been a while since i leveled a shaman and this might just be outdated (things change fast in WOW) if it is please tell me
Anyway enjoyed the read looking forward to your next instalment
Hih Apr 18th 2010 6:10AM
I think you're nitpicking a little too much on the weapon speed. Without heirlooms, you pretty much just take what you can get. Your stuff will be outdated in a few hours anyway. Though I do agree with you on ignoring flame shock for normal mobs while leveling. At best it's a wash, but more likely an ES will have done more damage if you kill the mob fast enough.
Boobah Apr 18th 2010 8:54AM
Yeah, that swap to Flametongue off-hand seemed early to me, too. Yes, it buffs Lava Lash, but that thing still hits like a limp noodle even with Flametongue on the weapon. As I recall, Windfury is the better offhand (Lava Lash buffs, proc-eating and all) until you pick up Elemental Devastation so your Flametongue crits can give you a +9% melee crit.
Kabuki Joe Apr 18th 2010 4:25AM
Man, I love these columns but you gotta put them out faster! I keep hitting the end level you describe the week you put these out. I want to know BEFORE I get there! Ha, just kidding, great work. I am only hitting these level because your writing motivated me to push through the icky 40s. Thank a ton!
Paladhorn Apr 18th 2010 6:00AM
Thanks guys!
Delmonico Apr 18th 2010 7:28AM
As far as leveling enhancement goes, the largest boost in speed/damage/omfg this is cool happened when I downloaded the Shock and Awe addon. I was using Powerauras to monitor my MW stacks and my shield stacks.
After following the addon, now the rotation is almost second nature, and I dont even really have to look at the reminders.
Del
lhan88 Apr 18th 2010 8:09AM
I can't help but think that you haven't leveled a shaman in a while. using FT wep without elemental fury is quite a dps loss. double windfury is the way to go until 80s. Also, nobody should be taking static shock for soloing at these levels, water shield is so important for mana regen while soloing especially, because of the healing + more so when you have maelstrom up and running.
Also, as far as weps go, the heirloom hammers are probably the best enhance weps for the duration of 1-79. 2.8 speed with high dmg and stats.
One last last thing is this, when you train skills, flame shock comes after earth shock. what happens is, depending on your gear level, have a flame shock's dot and front load damage be less than an earth shock combined. Therefore, if your really looking at it, you should be swapping spells about every 4-6 levels. But again, if you have heirlooms, earth shock is usually a much more efficient way to go in terms of not wasting damage.
... Also, I dunno these articles are ok, but it's like if anyone with half a brain would know how to level enhancement. I think you should include some like anecdotal or experience based information. Like for example, using stoneclaw glyph for leveling, which is awesome especially when you are tanking in an impromptu group.
It's just that you can sort of surmise an enhancement rotation without even reading anything, it's not really huge information at these levels. More and more you should focus on particular quests or dungeons with gear or things to do at these levels etc. that would be a leveling guide. this is like intro to Shaman abilities.
Aubriel Apr 19th 2010 10:56AM
Ah! Ive been waiting for this post for 2 weeks! Im level 56 now and I am tearing it up questing in WPL and EPL. I followed your guide on your blog and it has filled the void during your temporary hiatus. WTB moar Maelstrom procs! Great post imo, people really shouldn't be so critical, haha.
Good job!
albanesp Jun 8th 2010 10:50AM
Great guide. Thank you for taking the time to write it. I love my enh Shammy as much as my Demo Lock (my first and only other toon).
Question on weapon selection after lvl 60. I am dual wielding Venerable Mass of McGowan with Crusader enchants.
Crusader enchants become less effective after 60. Are there better weapon selections or should we stick with these until 80? Note that my alt is an enchanter so getting enchants for a new weapon is not a problem.