Enhancement Shaman Class Tips and Tricks

So, in the World of Warcraft, one great class is the shaman. They are extremely fun to play, can be very engaging, and a great asset to any raid, instance, or battleground. If you are an enhancement shaman (melee DPS) then there are a few things that you should always remember, in order to help your DPS:

1. Whenever your maelstrom weapon procs to rank 5, either cast chain lightning or lightning bolt immediately (depending on how many targets there are). This is a necessity because if you don't utilize your maelstrom weapon, then you are wasting it!

2. Always use shocks effectively! This means that you use flame shock to add a DoT (Damage over Time) effect on the enemy, followed by a consistent use of earth shock to keep the nature damage debuff on the target. This debuff increases the amount of damage nature spells and attacks do, which is what your lightning bolt/chain lightning attacks are.

3. Use totems! This is a huge mistake most shamans make. They go into a raid as enhancement, and just begin doing DPS right out of the gate. If you take a few seconds to lay down the proper totems for the group, you not only benefit your DPS numbers, but also the entire raid gets buffed as well. For example, if your group primarily consists of casters, you will want to make sure you have flametongue totem and wrath of air totems down, as well as mana spring. The flametongue will boost the amount of DPS the casters do, and it will also increase the amount of damage you do from your shocks and lightning bolts. The main totem you will always want to keep down as well is the strength of earth totem, which will increase the raids melee DPS, especially yours.

4. Watch your health! Whenever you see that you are getting slightly low on health, make sure you keep maelstrom weapon stacked to 5, this will give you an instant cast heal. If you are in a raid, and there are quite a few melee DPS that are getting low on health, use your chain heal to help alleviate the healing for the healers. They will surely thank you, and your DPS shouldn't drop too considerably. After all, it is more important to stay alive and do less DPS than have a bunch of people dead. When you're dead, you aren't doing any damage!

To sum it all up, enhancement shamans are a great asset to any raid or group, because of their versatility and the boost from the totems. You can do great DPS, help alleviate the healing, and increase the amount of DPS for the entire raid/group. Enjoy playing an enhancement shaman, since the purpose of the game is to have fun!

Warlock Affliction Leveling Overview

Warlocks are built for dark magic. They use the power of demons and souls to do their bidding. Leveling a warlock is a very simple process, and little-to-no downtime, if done right. Affliction tends to be the easiest and quickest talent spec to follow when leveling. Affliction, followed with the right rotation, will cause the caster very minimal damage when solo fighting. When you get to the higher levels (70-80), a very effective rotation is:
1. Haunt
2. Unstable Affliction
3. Corruption
4. Curse of Agony
5. Life Tap
6. Fear
7. Drain Life
8. Drain Soul (optional)
This rotation works extremely well with the felhound summoned. Normally solo fighting with a rotation like this, stamina is a big focus, as well as intellect. This rotation will cause the warlock to take one or two hits maximum, before the target enemy is dead (when the target is close to the warlock's level). This rotation is also easily customizable to your preference, depending on the play style you want to utilize. For instance, you can incorporate Soul Fire, Shadow Bolt, Drain Mana, or any of the destruction tree casts. It is all in how you want to play. From what I've found, the rotation listed above tends to work like a charm, it's quick, easy, and to the point. It keeps the warlock from having any downtime, when the enemy is dead you are at almost full mana and health while putting out a very consistent amount of damage. I will be covering a Warlock PvP guide within the next few days! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me at: floating.fuzzies09@gmail.com

Shaman Raid Quick Overview

The shaman is a great asset to many different types of raids. They help buff the party with their totems, have talent tree specializations that proc to boost the raid, and can be very versatile. In this quick overview, we will be covering enhancement shamans in a raid. There are many things to consider when raiding with an enhancement shaman, with the primary focus being DPS and buffs. So, here are a few things you always want to remember:
1. If you have enough mana regeneration from raid buffs, use your lightning shield. Because of the static shock spec in the enhancement tree, you have a chance of hitting the enemy with a lightning shield orb when you do damage. This will help slightly boost your DPS, but since it doesnt take any cooldown or slow the attacks you do down, you might as well use it. If you dont have enough mana regeneration, then always keep water shield on.
2. Use your shocks effectively! If you are starting to get pretty high up on the threat meter, make sure to use wind shock and slow down your damage for a little bit, for the tank to get further on threat. Shamans have a tendency to pull a little more aggro than the usual melee DPS, so make sure you are watching it and shocking accordingly. If you dont have any threat, then I've found (for me) that earth shock is definently the way to go. I use that every time it is on cooldown, and I've tested my theory on the dummies with different shock rotations. It seems that earth shock consistently does the most DPS.
3. Use the right totems! I covered this a little in the last blog, but it so important I thought I'd cover it again. If your raid is low on melee DPS, but really high in casters, use the wrath of air totem and the flametongue totem to help them out. You can still throw down a strength of earth totem for you, especially if you have the enhancing totems talent specialization.
4. Use your cooldowns when the raid needs them! This means, if you are in a guild that raids, and you decide to raid with them, make sure they are the ones that tell you when to use such cooldowns as: heroism/bloodlust, trinket cooldowns, etc. One major advantage that a shaman has is the feral spirit wolves. They can be lifesavers, since they heal you while fighting with you. Unless you get a really big group of enemies, there isn't too much of a need for them in raids until you get to a boss. The only boss I would NOT recommend using feral spirit wolves on is Patchwerk in Naxxramas. The reason behind that: If you are melee DPS, you have to stay below half life at ALL times, in order to not take a "Hateful Cleave". There is the poison you have to jump into, and then back out of, and it will take you to around half life. If you use the feral spirit wolves, they will heal you up, causing you to take a "Hateful Cleave". This means instant death for you (Hateful Cleave's hit mail armor wearers for around 45k!)

Here in the next day or two, I will be posting a rotation that I have found that works for me as an enhancement shaman, and I will also be writing a blog about restoration shamans in raids soon. In the meantime, if you have any specifics you would like me to delve into, just shoot me an email at: floating.fuzzies09@gmail.com, and I will do my best to answer them and post it on the blog! :)

Enhancement Shaman Class Overview

So, here is a brief overview of the shaman class in World of Warcraft. The shaman is a class that is in tune with the world, the environment, and the surroundings. They summon the power of the earth to help protect them in battle. The enhancement specialization of the shaman class is (in my opinion) extremely fun to play, regardless of what you are currently working on. Enhancement focuses on melee damage output (from here on out referred to as DPS, or damage per second). The purpose of enhancement shamans is to get up close and personal with the enemy and do major instant DPS. There are many things to take into consideration when playing enhancement, as there are many different aspects to it. The primary stats that you want to focus on as enhancement for leveling are (not necessarily in order): Agility, Hit rating, Intellect, and Stamina. Agility will greatly boost the amount of DPS you do, while the hit rating will make sure that you are actually able to strike your target. After all, if you can't hit them, you can't hurt them, right? The intellect will not only boost your mana pool, making solo fights easier to last through, but it will also boost up your attack power, because of the enhancement talent tree. Stamina, of course, is to boost your amount of health. The agility will be the primary focus, due to the amount of DPS it adds, as well as the dodge rating, and the critical strike rating. I will be delving more in depth into enhancement shamans, with a specific focus on leveling, raiding, and also into the Player vs. Player side of the game. I should have a new blog entry within the next few days covering the leveling side of enhancement shamans, as well as some brief overviews of restoration and elemental shamans. :)