Totem Talk: Enhancing your gear in only four dungeons
by Rich Maloy 
Aug 28th 2010 at 11:59PM
Holy Stormstrikes! I'm going to refrain from using the term casual in a post ever again. Wait, I just used it there. Ah well, rack that promise up with "I'll never drink again" and "I'll never die to cutters again." Lies, all of them, lies.
We all have different definitions of the term and judging by the comments in the last post, others' definition of casual is more severe than mine. I'll get into casual vs. hardcore and the ridiculousness of those classifications in another post. For now, I hear you loud and clear, so let's refrain from diving into that now.
I digress. As I was writing last week's article I had this sneaking suspicion that I already wrote several articles on gearing your non-end game enhancement shaman. In fact I had written articles many moons ago, and they are all on my neglected blog, Big Hit Box. Time for a revisit.
The dungeon loot list
You would think that a dungeon gear wish list wouldn't have changed much since March 2009, considering that only four new instances were released after that list was published. But those four instances cover nearly every slot with ilevel 219 and 232 gear, whereas the previous 12 dungeons drop ilevel 200 gear.
The TL;DR version of gearing up your enhancement shaman outside of raids is: grind the heck out of Trial of the Champion, Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and every tank's favorite, Halls of Reflection. And yes tanks, that's sarcasm; I know firsthand from my bear druid how nasty that place can be.
I wanted to title this post "A loot list for enhancement shaman who do not have regular or significant access to ICC gear, and may or may not consider themselves casual" but I didn't think that would fit in the address bar. And, after filling out just a few items on the list, I realized just how easy it is to gear yourself up running only the four new instances. It's almost a joke to create a loot list, but I will anyway in case you have a particular slot with a green quest reward still plaguing your character screen.
Enough preamble, on to the loot! I do include some normal versions of the instances, which technically makes this list eight dungeons instead of four, but you get the idea. Use this list to target areas for specific upgrades. Click the header link for an amazing Wowhead filter.
Head
- Eyes of Bewilderment – Forge of Souls (H)
- Horns of the Spurned Val'kyr – Pit of Saron (N)
- Barbed Ymirheim Choker – Pit of Saron (H)
- Ancient Pendant of Arathor – Trial of the Champion (H)
- Pauldrons of Concealed Loathing – Trial of the Champion (H)
- Spurned Val'kyr Shoulderguards – Pit of Saron (H)
- Accursed Crawling Cape – The Forge of Souls (N)
- Frostworn Bone Chestpiece – Halls of Reflection (H)
- Chestguard of the Ravenous Fiend – Trial of the Champion (H)
- Essence of Suffering – The Forge of Souls (H)
- Hoarfrost Gauntlets – Halls of Reflection (H)
- Gloves of the Dark Exile – Trial of the Champion (H)
- Belt of Rotted Fingernails – Pit of Saron (H)
- Frostworm Bone Leggings – Halls of Reflection (N)
- Spiked Toestompers – Halls of Reflection (H)
- Muddied Boots of Brill – Halls of Reflection (N)
- Scale Boots of the Outlander – Trial of the Champion (N)
- Band of Stained Souls – Pit of Saron (H)
- Needle-Encrusted Scorpion – The Forge of Souls (H)
- Banner of Victory – Trial of the Champion (N)
- Black Icicle – Halls of Reflection (H)
- Nighttime – The Forge of Souls (H)
- Hate-Forged Cleaver – Halls of Reflection (N)
- Aledar's Battlestar – Trial of the Champion (H)
- Seven-Fingered Claws – random drop in FoS, PoS, HoR, normal and heroic
- Cudgel of Furious Justice – quest reward from Battered Hilt which drops in heroic FoS, PoS, and HoR
Get your priorities straight
Remember, your priorities on gearing are as follows:
- cap expertise: 140 rating or 26 in your character sheet
- cap hit: 341 for Alliance, 367 for Horde
- go for mail gear with agility
Your weapons should always be slow. Slow means speed 2.60 weapons in each hand. Use the Windfury imbue in your main hand, and Flametongue in your off hand. Though for PvP Frostbrand is ideal in the off hand. For a refresher be sure to check out Enhancement 101, and 201.
Once again, weapons and trinkets can be found here on WoW.com. Weapons are your single most important piece of gear. Aggressively go after weapon upgrades.
And if you accidentally trip and fall into a raid you could always look at this loot list that I wrote up once upon a time for my brothers and sisters who do have access to ICC on occasion but don't have access to it on a regular basis. Whew, that's quite a disclaimer.
I'm all disclaimered out this week. Seriously, if you are a fresh 80 or limited in play time on your enhancement shaman, just run ToC, FoS, PoS, and HoR until you're geared to the teeth. Problem solved.
May all your hits be crits!
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk. Whether it's Matt Sampson's elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of restoration or Rich Maloy's enhancement edition, WoW.com's shaman experts have you covered.Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mistat Aug 29th 2010 12:02AM
Nice reference to have whenever I get around to getting my poor little enhancement shammy up to 80. Rating requirements are always handy too.
Dave Aug 29th 2010 12:04AM
Thanks for this! I ditched my enhancement gear back in 3.1-ish and I've been thinking of making a new set for a while now. This should help.
alpha5099 Aug 29th 2010 12:20AM
Good luck getting that cape. I remember trying to get it for my enh set; it seems to be a terribly rare drop, and just about every melee DPS wants it too. You'll likely face some tough competition.
Mike Aug 29th 2010 12:33AM
I finally got it about a week before the Midsummer Fire Festival, when it was quickly replaced. It was replaced not long again after with a drop in ICC that no-one else needed.
Zankoku Aug 29th 2010 12:40AM
NORMALLY, my first Frost purchase is the cape, just because of the high competition.
But I was lucky. Got 3rd BiS while running as Resto in a ICC25 ([link]http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49998[/link]) when noone wanted. Fun times, fun times.
Zankoku Aug 29th 2010 12:42AM
LOL fail at linktagging lol sorry
Zankoku Aug 29th 2010 12:35AM
Although a little out of scope of this article (but also relevant), Emblem purchases might have made an appearance (since we are farming heroics here, and pretty much everyone is swimming in them).
A priority list of Emblem purchases (for both Frost and Triumph) would be appreciated.
Funny part of this is that I geared up my Enh from these instances when running as Resto. If no hunters in party, feel free to grab. Rings/Trinks/Necks/Weapons are more of a fight, but still easily farmed while running as resto.
Going back to my mention of Emblem purchases, my gearset is in "limboland" where the AP trink and Haste trink are nearly equal.
Dressel Aug 29th 2010 1:44AM
Try Wowhead]
Dressel Aug 29th 2010 1:48AM
Sorry - I, too, fail at link tagging. Link below should give you all the Enhancement Shammy gear purchasable with EoT.
http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=ub=7;cr=118;crs=47241;crv=0;gm=4;wt=119:123:103:96:23;wtv=100:60:56:40:11;gb=1
thebitterfig Aug 29th 2010 4:37PM
RE: a badge priority:
It doesn't really make sense to list a hard priority for badges (or at least for triumph/conquest ones), in the sense that you ought to be, in some ways, replacing your weakest items first. it might be that the badge or tier helm (or whatever slot you happen to be thinking about) is the best, but if you have either the 219 or 232 dungeon one, you probably shouldn't get the helm right off but instead upgrade that blue ring, or the blue legs. low on expertise should probably get the expertise items first, or hit as needed, or so forth.
Travieso Aug 29th 2010 1:05AM
It may be worth mentioning that the expertise cap for orcs is lower due to their racial.
Trever Aug 29th 2010 2:07AM
I know you said to stack AP, but when I gem is that what I go after? Or gem for Agility since you said go after gear with Agility?
Ihastail Aug 29th 2010 2:59AM
Gem for Attack Power until you get into mostly ICC gear, then switch to all Haste.
Enhance doesn't get enough from Agility to gem for it.
Zankoku Aug 29th 2010 2:38PM
Agility is a poor stat to gem, as you only get a 1:1 Agi-to-AP conversion rate, plus an insignificant Crit increase. Looking at the gem cuts, the Agi gem will only give us 20AP, compared to the AP cut which is 40AP. More DPS from the AP cut.
Yltharion Aug 29th 2010 4:40AM
I think its a bit irresponsible to tell enhancement shamans to roll for Banner / Needle trinkets. Most, if not all, other melee specs make more use of them. For example for enh Needle is a bit meh, but for a warrior/combat rogue/feral kitty/mm hunter it is godly. Same goes for banner.
Of course upgrade is an upgrade, but a nice person always thinks whether someone else can make a better use of some item. I truly hate enh sammies and ret pallies stealing ArP loot.
Evlyxx Aug 29th 2010 5:33AM
I see you must run everything in guild or friend groups, people in the Dungeon Finder tool generally aren't that unselfish.
PistolPeet Aug 29th 2010 6:37AM
As the saying goes, don't hate the player... hate the game.
Unfortunately at that level, there are no better trinkets available for an enhancement shaman. The "nice person always thinks whether someone else can make a better use of some item" only really applies when there's another viable upgrade that'd replace the scorpion for an enhancement shammy at the next boss (and, thus, wasted the Scorpion) but that's just not the case.
MikeMachine Aug 29th 2010 11:37AM
I agree with your statement. But gear and enh Shaman at 80, hell at any level. It sucks, its not easy to do, there aren't clear cut stats that you will want until ICC and haste becomes "it".
Moonfaxx Aug 29th 2010 8:23PM
"Of course upgrade is an upgrade, but a nice person always thinks whether someone else can make a better use of some item."
This is exactly why nice cavemen died out. And the modern day jackass is alive and well.
Kuro Aug 30th 2010 2:53PM
Would you follow the rule if it was reversed? Would you pass on the Haste/Crit neck/ring/back because the Enh Shammy gets more use out of it than you?
The proc on the BoV is the BiS trinket a Ret Paladin will find in a 5 man. Rets and Enhance who are gearing up have just as much right to roll on it as any of the ArP hungry classes.
If really really want to get an item from 5 man, form your own 5 man and stack it with casters after the abyssal rune.