Totem Talk: Post-patch enhancement shaman still waiting for buffs
by Rich Maloy 
Nov 1st 2010 at 9:00PM
We're now two full weeks into patch 4.0.1 with our new and improved enhancement spec. Improved? Actually, no. Our DPS is only marginally improved over the previous incarnation, while our fellow melee brethren were buffed to the teeth. My rough analysis shows the difference between us and top melee DPS, usually warrior and death knight, has widened significantly since the patch.
I'm going to preface all of this analysis by saying that I am not the top enhancement shaman, by far. I play well, I study my class, I optimize my spec, gems, forging, gear and rotations. I don't die to stupid stuff -- well, at least not often! In other words, I try to push my damage without sacrificing myself. Be forewarned that some of these numbers I'm embarrassed to post in such a public manner, and while I'm hardly the benchmark for DPS, I can at least provide a baseline of what your average progression raider's numbers look like.
On average across eight of 12 hard-mode fights in ICC (excluding the gimmick fights Gunship, VDW and BQL, and excluding H-LK because we're just now working on him), the top melee DPS was doing 50 percent more damage than me pre-patch and 64 percent more post-patch. I could narrow that gap down to about 15 percent on a standstill fight such as Deathbringer Saurfang, but on high-movement fights such as Sindy, the top melee would do as much as 80 percent more damage than me overall.
As much as it pains me to say this, as a raid leader I have to ask the question: Am I dead weight in raids right now? Will level 85 with Unleash Elements bring better output?
Breaking down the numbers
Above, I was speaking about the difference in damage compared to other melee; here is the breakdown by fight:
| Pre-Patch | Post-patch | |||||
| Boss | Enhance damage | Diff from top melee | % Diff from top melee | Enhance damage | Diff from top melee | % Diff from top melee |
| H-Lord M | 1,694,247 | 1,207,022 | 71.24% | 1,354,342 | 912,153 | 67.35% |
| H-LDW | 2,166,237 | 2,007,775 | 92.68% | 1,777,883 | 2,190,030 | 123.18% |
| H-DS | 2,935,839 | 506,884 | 17.27% | 2,403,901 | 660,713 | 27.49% |
| H-Fester | 2,865,681 | 650,329 | 22.69% | 2,358,686 | 1,099,880 | 46.63% |
| H-Rot | 2,618,336 | 516,424 | 19.72% | 2,416,002 | 746,005 | 30.88% |
| H-PP | 4,072,590 | 1,111,490 | 27.29% | 3,627,213 | 1,641,455 | 45.25% |
| H-BPC | 1,870,860 | 1,450,928 | 77.55% | 981,119 | 1,888,343 | 192.47% |
| H-Sindy | 3,402,771 | 2,705,110 | 79.50% | 2,853,807 | 2,312,656 | 81.04% |
| Total | 21,626,561 | 10,155,962 | 46.96% | 17,772,953 | 11,451,235 | 64.43% |
The first thing that jumps out at me is that I played that BPC fight very conservatively, which I tend to do when we're melee-heavy. Taking that out, I was far outdone by the top melee, with improved warriors and death knights widening an already wide gap. Even on every melee's favorite punching bag, Saurfang, I couldn't close the gap between me and the next highest melee. Pre-patch, the top melee was only doing about 18 percent more damage than me, compared to about 27 percent more damage post-patch.
Across the board, the total damage is lower, though that may be a function of time; with everyone doing more damage, the fights will be shorter, so let's take a look at the DPS differences:
| Boss | Pre-Patch DPS | Post-Patch DPS | Difference |
| H-Lord M | 9,785 | 9,947 | 162 |
| H-LDW | 7,086 | 8,519 | 1,433 |
| H-DS | 15,224 | 15,405 | 181 |
| H-Fester | 13,419 | 13,348 | -71 |
| H-Rot | 12,406 | 13,669 | 1,263 |
| H-PP | 9,802 | 9,262 | -540 |
| H-BPC | 6,535 | 5,978 | -557 |
| H-Sindy | 8,703 | 8,543 | -160 |
| Average | 10,370 | 10,584 | 214 |
My DPS was mostly higher. I can attribute the higher LDW and Rotface numbers to spending some time on the boss for LDW to give threat-hogs a break, and on Rot, I probably didn't get a little ooze on me in the post-patch fight.
The two fights I like to use as benchmarks are Deathbringer Saurfang and Professor Putricide; DS is our punching bag, and for PP, I find the RNG evens out over the full length of the fight. Looking just at those two, my DPS was slightly higher for DS, though only marginally, and was lower for PP. I'm not really happy with the state of enhancement shaman DPS right now.
The next question I wanted to answer was, how do I compare to world top enhancement shaman? I started looking at top enhancement shaman DPS stats and realized that most of the top numbers come from guilds running a two- to three-healer setup and burning down bosses before they can pop off their big abilities. Have you ever done a 1:23 heroic Lord Marrowgar? Me, neither -- but we might start!
Regardless, life is tough right now for enhance. We're not quite buffed, we're far behind other melee, our buffs can be provided by any number of other classes, and our damage is still heavily reliant on procs. If you were leading a 10-man hard mode group, would you bring an enhance shaman or an unholy death knight? Well, I'd bring myself -- the advantage of being the GM, I suppose -- but even then, I'd know I was making the wrong decision for the good of the group.
Calling for a buff to Maelstrom Weapon
I can think of a few things to help enhancement shaman really top out the numbers, but I think the key is in improving Maelstrom Weapon. Make it either proc more often, or have it also give a boost to Lightning Bolt. Alternatively, Blizzard could bring Lava Burst back into Maelstrom Weapon. Yes, I've said how it doesn't "feel enhancement" and I still feel that way, but it would be a huge increase to our numbers. As for rotational complexity, we're used to it. We thrive on it. Bring it on!
Increases to Windfury Weapon procs would be great, or bigger numbers from both that and Flametongue Weapon. Improved Lava Lash is already pretty strong when buffed with Searing Flames, and I'm happy with the way that mechanic works and how fast the totem attacks. Buffing shocks will benefit our elemental brothers, but it's not really what makes or breaks us.
We'll have to see how Unleash Elements and Spiritwalker's Grace pans out. But I keep coming back to Maelstrom Weapon as the ability that will give us that an extra edge, making it the pinnacle enhancement ability used to crush our opponents. We need a killer hit, because right now, we're taking the hit.
Regardless, even if my numbers are low compared to what we're capable of doing, there's no denying that enhancement shaman got the short end of the buff stick this round. What do you think of the numbers? What do you think of your output so far since the patch?
May all your hits be crits!
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk. Whether it's Sarah Nichol's elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of restoration or Rich Maloy's enhancement edition, WoW Insider's shaman experts have you covered.Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Wild Colors Nov 1st 2010 9:05PM
When I see an enhance shaman riding a giant plate- and ice-encrusted undead dragon across the northern sky, my first thought is not "man, that guy totally needs a buff."
Just saying.
My first thought is more along the lines of "quickly, hide the children in the basement!"
Amogayvhi Nov 1st 2010 9:18PM
Ya. Because the possiblity of A) Having it from before or B) having it with the 30% buff and being carried by many other, harder hitting class' totally meens its okay.
Angus Nov 1st 2010 11:02PM
And how often do you see those Enhance shaman riding those undead dragons?
We have 1 on my server.
He goes enhance to quest, otherwise he's resto.
You'll find that's probably the case in most of those dragon riders.
You'd be better off hiding your kids from the death knights, warriors, and rogues who far outnumber enhance shaman on those mounts. They probably didn't get them as a healer.
Powatodapeople Nov 1st 2010 11:22PM
I used to be proud of the fact that if played correctly, we could be up there with the pure melees and it used to be that it took a great deal of skill to perfect the priority system and the fast paced, gcd locked rotation we had. I feel sort of duped after the removal of many buttons without the addition of others. sure it felt a little wrong that our single target rotation included an aoe totem and fire nova, and I'm glad they took it out, but we should get something in return. Ret got templars verdict after having divine storm kicked out of single target, bladestorm kicked the bucket too, but there is something really wrong when there are 3 or maybe even 4 (I don't count...) second gaps where we are just hitting white hits, save windfury/flametounge. here's to hoping unleash weapon really helps fill the void and help bring my pride back
Powatodapeople Nov 1st 2010 11:31PM
On a more positive note, after thinking my last post was too QQ-ish, I think we will scale pretty well with stats. we have been known to scale a lot with gear, and right now mastery is a very valuable stat that we can't really get a firm grip on right now. I think as enhancement shaman, we can all stick in there until we really find out how everything turns out in the big picture.
besides, who doesn't like a comeback story, am I right?
Stormdirge Nov 1st 2010 11:41PM
I have played as a pally tank for nearly 4 years. Well about 6 months ago I started leveling my shaman just to switch things up. I was instantly in love. About 6 months ago he became my main because I was just tired of tanking and out of all my other dps alts I loved the utility and sheer versatility of my enhancement shaman. Well getting to the point I began to get good, very good at my build and began doing ICC 25 and heroic ICC 25 in full T10 gear about 2 months ago. On average my dps ranged on boss fights from about 9k to 14k depending on the boss and how much movement was required and in heroics tended to be a constant 7-8k dps. While I too understand balancing classes and that all classes in WoW are now designed for lvl 85 and such, with this patch my best dps on the same bosses in nearly the same gear is about 7k to 9k. Whilst my dk in half T9 half T10 is doing nearly 1.5k more dps on the same bosses as my shammy and in heroics he absolutely destroys my shaman by 2k+ dps. I'm not a dps whore but this is a bit disturbing personally. Does WoW have a plan for us after the xpac or do I just need to accept that I will never again be in the top 3 dps and should get used to sitting back seat to warrs, rogues and dks?
SaintStryfe Nov 2nd 2010 7:04AM
sorry to tell you, angus, your server has crappy shaman then.
I'm not the world's best player, but i have my Bloodbathed. I put in work, and I have an excellent guild. i'm in the top half of DPS always. We're going to start work on Heroic LK tonight.
We're FINE. Yes, there was a slight nerf in relative damage, it's rare I get those huge 20K Quadruple WF Crits in ICC (though not unheardof). However, everyone else did too, except for a few casters who had unbalanced spells, most of which has been fixed.
If Blizz is saying we're going to be fine, I have no reason not to trust them. Wrath has been a golden age for Raiding ENH Shaman, as we are no longer hobbled by our spec and can honestly go in and play as we wish to. If they say "you'll be better at 85", then I'll be completely fair and wait until 85. When I'm in the Bastion of Twilight and still putting out Wrath DPS, then maybe I'll be annoyed. But if the bosses go down, and it's not my DPS that's the problem, then i'll not worry.
Again, ENH shaman is not a strict DPS spec. We're a buff spec. We work to better those around us. If all you do is an ICC pug that goes to Rotface, you'll never see how powerful you are.
Eisengel Nov 2nd 2010 10:07PM
@SaintStryfe
If this were BC, I'd agree with you - however things have changed. I normally play an SPriest. In BC SPriests were in a strongly marginalized mana battery role, but they are now actually a DPS caster. GC had commented on this saying that people wanted to be awesome, not just make other people awesome.
I don't think Blizz would engineer a class to be a buff class given what it has done in Wrath with class/role/stat homogenization. There is no 'buff' role, so I think Blizz is intending Shamen to be DPS. It could well be that numbers need to be fixed. A lot of numbers for a lot of specs need to be fixed, IMO.
HeroJéz Nov 1st 2010 9:10PM
Enhancement have what, three ramp-ups? I understand Shadowmourne comes into things a little, but those numbers are embarassing.. Blizzard need to get rid of the ICD of Windfury Imbue, and they need to make enhancement much less reliant on totems.. I know that sounds daft as a shaman, but realistically apart from the odd gimick totem, they just sit them down... and press Searing every minute..
I would imagine the complex rotation is such that Blizzard could buff Basic Enhancement to Ret levels and then anyone skilled enough to really nail rotations could be rewarded with excellent DPS.
I guess things are balanced for 85 and it's all by-the-way until we see how they do on Al'Akir or better yet, Nefarian.
I still hoped they'd show our imbued regardless of Enchanting graphics... shame they couldn't be bothered.
Angus Nov 1st 2010 11:11PM
That Shadowmourne excuse is pretty thin and getting pathetic.
Last I knew Ferals and Rogues didn't have it, and they are also getting well ahead of Enhance.
MikeLive Nov 1st 2010 9:13PM
I'm sorry, but this doesn't sound like any better than QQ than those on the forums. My DPS has gone way up since patch, which is ironic as my interest has gone way down. There's pretty much only two buttons to hit at any regular intervals (Stormstrike and Earth/Flame Shock), Lava Lash's new cooldown I've found add a whole lot of boring (even if it does make other things - Searing Totem - much more involved in a good way) to what was once my favourite DPS spec, and though I never really liked Fire Nova, it was another button to hit. This will likely be changed when I get Unleash Weapon and I will enjoy the class again, but for now, Unholy is back to being my favourite melee spec, with Ret a close second and then Enhancement.
Boozard Nov 2nd 2010 12:08AM
actually, it's more than just losing dps. totems have been badly nerfed. a lot of totems no longer stack with a lot of the buffs. SoE doesn't seem to stack with horn of winter and battleshout, stoneskin no longer stacks with devotion, windfury no longer stacks with icy talons (don't know if it ever did), and even bloodlust is no longer unique to shamans. healers (resto) will always have a place in raids, ranged dps (elemental) is somewhat more in demand and from what i hear put out decent dps anyway... so what happens to a class-spec that does inferior dps and doesn't really have much to offer by way of raid buffs?
ZeroDesu Nov 2nd 2010 5:55AM
Ouch. Welcome to the world of the Subtlety Rogue. That's how we were until the 4.0.1 patch. We had 0 raid utility and our damage was subpar. Thanks to the patch, though, ALL rogue specs are doing good damage, instead of that one spec falling behind. :)
Sorry, my main is a rogue, even though I love my shammy to death, and it just reminds me of why I went Assassination over Subtlety early on.
MikeLive Nov 2nd 2010 7:55AM
@Boozard Hate to break it to you bud, but Strength of Earth never stacked with Horn of Winter, Stoneskin never stacked with Devotion Aura, and Windfury never stacked with Icy Talons. Battle Shout was changed from providing AP (same as Blessing of Might, which is instead now the same as Trueshot Aura, Abomination's Might, and Unleashed Rage) to providing Str/Agi (along with SoE and HoW). Bloodlust was shared around a little so that Shaman were brought to raids for being good players, not because of a particular buff (no-one is in the unique buff category anymore). Want to know what happens to a spec that's doing sub-par DPS? They'll get adjusted. If Enhancement were doing sub-par DPS, it'd be adjusted. The problem is that other specs are overpowered at the moment, a difficulty in balancing due to the fact that, at 80, not all abilities are available, and those specs will be nerfed back to where they should be at 85; Enhancement Shaman turns out were exactly where they should have been, so buffs weren't required. Just because other specs are overpowered doesn't mean yours is underpowered. Just means that the other specs will be hit by the nerf bat sooner than later.
Boozard Nov 2nd 2010 10:32AM
hope they do mike. until they do and we are being shut out of raids in favor of harder hitting DKs who have all our buffs anyway.... i think a little QQ is in order.
Amogayvhi Nov 1st 2010 9:15PM
I've fallen significantly behind the other DPS in my group. The two DK's who are our usual melee DPS alongside me have seen a huge increase in DPS.
I was hoping we'd see some buff when every other melee got the buff. Seeing as how our elemental damage didn't end up as OP as alot of the other casters ended up.
Seems like Enhancement has stayed the same while everything else has evolved, for the most part. Seeing 30K lava lash crits doesn't really make up for being less useful DPS wise.
Clint Rice Nov 1st 2010 9:18PM
Enhancement has for some reason always been the least of Blizzard's concerns for some time. I felt so outpaced by all other melee dps that with 4.01 I finally gave up on it after sticking with it since vanilla. With a mix match set of ilvl 245 pieces I was doing more dps as elemental than I was with a 4 pc t10 as enhance, so I threw in the towel. I'm still hoping someone at Blizzard takes notice and finally throws a bone to enhance because I am going to miss it if stays as is.
Saeadame Nov 1st 2010 9:24PM
I think Blizz isn't too worried about numbers right now (though maybe they should be?). they buffed warriors/feral kitty/etc because they were doing like.. 1/2 or less DPS of what they were doing before, and that's too much. Your numbers seem relatively comparable, even if they are slightly lower (let's assume, had you gotten a slime on Rotface your DPS increase wouldn't have been as great).
Anyway, I think the time to start examining where you can get more DPS is at 85 with all your bells and whistles. Until then, I don't think it's fair to say you're dead weight. Certainly, 10k DPS is nothing to sniff at, although maybe it's low compared to the rest of your group.
Angus Nov 1st 2010 11:08PM
Enhance was doing LESS than those people BEFORE they got buffed. AND STILL IS.
There is no excuse for it. Shaman point out that ALL melee got hit hard by the armor and haste changes and GC responded with "You are fine at 85"
They stated flat out they are giving feral, dks, warriors, and rogues a temporary buff because their lvl 80 numbers were low, but when he gets shown a few dozen parses, he comes back with lvl 85 numbers being put out by one of the best Enhance Shaman in the game, and against a DK and Warrior that probably aren't as good as the shaman.
GC has a different standard for shaman.
Asaron Nov 2nd 2010 7:17AM
No, enhancement certainly wasn't doing less than those classes when 4.01 initially hit.
We're close to what we were doing and we're a bit more mobile now, which means we are viable for any content the game currently offers. We might not be the best choice right now, but there is nothing we can't complete. Surely that'll do for this strange interim period?