How To Improve As Enhancement Shaman - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

Last updated on May 07, 2024 at 11:20by Wordup35 comments

The single most common mistake Enhancement players make is not adjustingtheir rotation to minimize empty Global Cooldowns. This problem is twofold:

• Simply not pressing buttons fast enough. You should be GCD locked atthis stage in Dragonflight, so you should always be pressing something.
• A combination of not keeping on top of your ability cooldowns andcasting things in an order that causes them to clash in the next cycle.

Ideally, you should plan your globals based on your ability state, making sureto keep abilities cooling down in a way that does not cause this to happen.This is not a skill you learn overnight and comes with practice and musclememory, but downtime is the enemy of any good Enhancement player.

Also remember that Enhancement does have tools to keep dealing asmall amount of damage when you are forced out of range. Both of yourShock spells have a 40-yard range, as do your Maelstrom Weaponspenders, letting you fill space that other melee specs may not be ableto. With none of these available, shift into Ghost Wolfwhenever possible to quickly re-engage your target in melee.

The above is also intertwined with your Maelstrom Weapon management.This serves as the central mix-up in the rotation that allows you tofill gaps that can be caused by incorrect cooldown cycling or bad Stormbringer that creates a clash. Treat it as a one GCDdelay, giving other abilities time to return. This meanspooling is a core part of Maelstrom management, as you can storeup to 10 stacks before any waste occurs. If you are at risk ofreaching 10 stacks, however, due to cooldowns or passive generation, youshould shift to burning it off quickly, as waste is terrible inDragonflight due to how much damage it contributes.

Overflowing Maelstrom doubles down on this, giving more roomto use Maelstrom-positive GCDs without worrying about overcappingbecause you cannot spend it fast enough, as it always spends your entirepool.

It may be tempting as Elementalist to rush into big payoff Elemental Blast moments, but remember that it is key to get the mostout of these limited charges. That means ideally spending at or above 8 (unlesscharges are about to go to waste) and overlapping it with powerful Elemental Spirits. If you spend them too early and avoid thesebuffs, you leave a huge amount of damage on the table.

For Storm builds specifically, our rules surrounding Maelstrom Weapon changes drastically. Unlike in all othercases, when playing this in single-target, we do not care aboutresource waste at all. Instead, we aim to cast as many Stormstrikesas possible. That means it is used more to fuel Legacy of the Frost Witchresets, and as such, whenever Stormstrike is not ready, we spend to try andtrigger both this and Static Accumulation. This rule is exclusivelyfor Storm builds due to the way its entire loadout works and the nature offishing for Deeply Rooted Elements procs.

While Enhancement is not the highest APM spec, it does come with alot of different active buttons that all interact with each other and canbe very unforgiving with the time you have to make those decisions. Dueto this, knowing when to prioritize something because it is currently buffedand when to sit on it because more important things are currently availableis key.

For Elementalist builds effects such as Hot Hand drasticallyalters the playstyle when active raising Lava Lash to the top to avoidwaste. Similarly, Hailstorm and Ice Strike buffs raise Frost Shockmuch higher to avoid reapplying the buff without consuming it.

For Storm builds on the other hand the highest priority is getting Stormstrike on cooldown and keeping it there to fish for Deeply Rooted Elementsprocs. Anything that can trigger Stormbringer should beused when it is not ready, and shifting to maintenance in the short period whilewaiting (such as refreshing Flame Shock with Lava Lash or managingyour Maelstrom Weapon) becomes the priority.

Both builds also have to balance their Maelstrom Weapon carefully, asmentioned above due to the ebb and flow that changes between them. Storm comesin bursts and leverages it for extra resets via Legacy of the Frost Witch,while Elementalist plays around with the Elemental Blast cooldown and uses itto fill otherwise while also trying to aim for as few stacks as possible beforecasting Primordial Wave.

Our Rotation section goes into more depth regarding this as it comes with afairly robust ruleset for the conditions on when to shift priorities.

No matter the build you play (though some are worse than others), there is simplya factor of high RNG that can impact Enhancement at all times. Sometimes, thereis nothing you could have done to fix it. Elementalist can simplyhave bad Elemental Spirits rolls not overlapping with Hot Handand badly timed Maelstrom Weapon slumps, which can hurt performance.Storm, on the other hand, is at the whim of Deeply Rooted Elementsand Stormbringer proc chains, which can be extremely erratic, and bothcontribute a lot to your performance. If you check your logs and you see youonly got a couple of procs in 5 minutes compared to someone who got 10+,unfortunately, that is just the luck of the draw, and the only real answeris to move on to the next pull.

In single-target situations, you should always aim to have as close to 100%uptime on your enemy as possible with Flame Shock. This is an extremelyhigh DPS DoT effect that also has strong talent pairings with Lashing Flames, making it even more important when taken. With Molten Assault, Lava Lash will reapply Flame Shock toyour target if it already has Flame Shock on it and will also apply itto nearby targets in AoE, allowing you to maintain Flame Shock uptimewithout having to recast it.

Because Enhancement is a spec with a lot of moving parts, it reallydoes benefit from having some form of tracking via Weakauras or something similar.This is especially due to the fact that our resource in Maelstrom Weaponhas no resource bar, just some small UI elements despite how important it is.While a lot of the packs can be very helpful, nothing compares to manually adjustingthings to your own weaknesses. If you find you are struggling with a particularpart of the rotation, just highlight that aura a bit more aggressively to trainyourself into managing it properly. There is nothing wrong with using all the toolsat your disposal to improve, just remember to think about the why whenpressing buttons!

It is challenging to optimize your character without first accuratelyusing Raidbots to sim your own characterto identify a fixed start point. This will allow you to quickly identify theideal gear choices you have available to equip, and due to the variables ofdifferent gear interacting with each other (and the War/Titanforging systemcausing unpredictability) should be the go-to tool to decide what you use.

On top of this, simming is now very easy, with no need to understandSimulationCraft APLs or installation yourself. All you will need is thein-game SimulationCraft AddOn and the Raidbots website. Below is avideo on how to sim your character using the website.