Contents
Overview
Enhancement Shaman is a two-handed melee spec with a support kit bolted on. Your own damage comes in bursts: a 
Windfury Weapon proc, a 
Stormstrike, an 
Earth Shock on top. Between those bursts you’re auto-attacking, and that’s where Classic Enhancement falls behind Warriors and Rogues.
What most guides skip is why raids still bring you. Your totems buff your whole party, and with 
Enhancing Totems and 
Improved Weapon Totems your Strength of Earth Totem and 
Windfury Totem are stronger than any other Shaman’s. Put an Enhancement Shaman in the melee group and every Warrior and Rogue in it hits harder. Play it knowing that a good share of your value shows up on other people’s meters.
A raid boss can only hold so many debuffs, and Stormstrike and 
Flame Shock both take a slot. Many raid leaders will ask you to keep them off the boss in favor of Sunder Armor and the like. That’s why the raid version of this rotation uses 
Frost Shock instead of Flame Shock.
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Windfury Totem and Strength of Earth Totem are among the strongest party buffs a melee group can get.
- High burst from Windfury Weapon, Stormstrike and Earth Shock, plus some ranged damage from shocks.
- Utility nobody else on the Horde side has in the same package:
Purge, an Earth Shock interrupt, off-heals and 
Reincarnation. - Orc racials suit the spec, with
Axe Specialization for two-handed axes and 
Blood Fury for burst.
- Weak sustained damage. Your strikes sit on long cooldowns compared to a Warrior’s or a Rogue’s.
- Mana-hungry. Totems are expensive, and running out leaves your group without its buffs.
- Totem upkeep is constant work, especially if you’re twisting Air totems.
- Squishy for a melee class, with no escape once something focuses you.
Talents
Hover over any talent to read its tooltip. Calculator not loading? Open the Shaman talent calculator on Wowhead.
This is Warcraft Tavern’s raid build: 5 Elemental, 31 Enhancement and 15 Restoration. It takes everything that adds melee damage in Enhancement, then goes into Restoration for hit and cheaper totems.
Key Choices:
- Stormstrike is the capstone and the reason to be Enhancement at all. It gives you an extra attack, and the next 2 sources of Nature damage on the target deal 20% more for 12 seconds.
Flurry gives your next 3 swings 30% more attack speed after any crit, and 
Thundering Strikes adds the 5% crit that keeps it rolling.
Weapon Mastery adds 10% damage to every weapon hit, and 
Elemental Weapons boosts your weapon imbues.- Enhancing Totems makes Strength of Earth Totem and
Grace of Air Totem 15% stronger, and Improved Weapon Totems raises Windfury Totem‘s attack power bonus by 30%. These two are why your totems beat any other Shaman’s. 
Nature’s Guidance gives 3% hit, which drops the hit you need from gear from 8% to 5%. 
Totemic Focus makes every totem 25% cheaper, and you’ll feel that on long fights.
Points you can move: 
Improved Healing Wave in place of 
Tidal Focus if you’re expected to back up the healers. Totemic Focus can go into 
Call of Flame if mana isn’t a problem for you. If your raid wants 
Stoneskin Totem from you, move Enhancing Totems into Guardian Totems.
Stat Priority
- 1
- Hit (to 5%)
with
Nature’s Guidance, 5% hit from gear is your cap for special attacks. Below it, your special attacks miss more often.
- 2
- Strength
each point is worth 2 attack power, which beats raw attack power point for point.
- 3
- Attack Power
the next best thing after Strength.
- 4
- Agility and Crit
about 20 Agility per 1% crit. Crit matters because it’s what triggers
Flurry.
- 5
- Intellect
a bigger mana pool for your totems. Don’t stack it, but don’t drop to nothing either.
Weapon skill counts too. Axe skill from Axe Specialization or gear cuts down glancing blows and helps your hit and crit, which is one more reason Orcs favor two-handed axes.
Rotation
Totems come first, every fight. If your group’s Windfury Totem or Strength of Earth Totem drops, that costs more damage than anything you’d lose from a late Stormstrike. Warcraft Tavern sums the priority up as totems, then Stormstrike, then a shock.
Totem twisting is the advanced version. Windfury Totem‘s weapon buff lasts 10 seconds after it’s applied, so you drop Windfury, then Grace of Air Totem over it, then Windfury again about every 10 seconds. Your group keeps both buffs, at a huge mana cost. If you twist, stop casting shocks and spend the mana on totems instead.
OPENER
- 1.
down before the pull, together with your Air totem.
- 2.
or start twisting with Grace of Air Totem if your raid wants both.
- 3.
on your weapon before the pull. Skip weapon oils, since they don’t stack with your imbue.
- 4.
as soon as the tank has threat.
PRIORITY
- 1.
on cooldown, your main damage.
- 2.
in dungeons and small groups, when the debuff has room and the target lives through its full duration.
- 3.
when threat is low. It’s strongest while the Stormstrike debuff is on the target, since it’s Nature damage.
- 4.
in raids, use it on cooldown in place of Flame Shock, and when threat is getting high.
AOE
- 1.
replaces Searing Totem as your Fire totem.
- 2.
on cooldown when you can get close to the pack.
Fire Nova Totem- 3.
Warcraft Tavern’s pick for packs, in place of swinging at one target.
Chain LightningDownrank your shocks when mana is tight. Rank 4 Earth Shock is the first rank that gets the full bonus from your gear and costs far less than Rank 7, which you save for when you need maximum damage.
Consumables
- Elixir
your main elixir for Agility and crit.
Elixir of the Mongoose- Buff
extra Strength, which is worth 2 attack power per point for you.
Juju Power- Food
Strength food.
Blessed Sunfruit is the cheaper option.
Smoked Desert Dumplings- Potion
mana regeneration for an hour, which pays for your totems.
Mageblood Potion- Potion
for long fights or when you’re twisting totems.
Major Mana Potion- Buff
an optional attack power boost for progression fights.
Winterfall FirewaterGear
Most of your fights are spent with a two-handed axe, and you’ll compete with Warriors for a lot of it. Dragonscale Leatherworking’s Black Dragonscale pieces are a solid start: not perfect, but extra power until raid drops replace them. Later on, some raids will ask you to keep up a weapon debuff with a crafted or dropped debuff weapon, so learn a weapon-swap macro early.
- Weapon
The slowest, hardest-hitting two-handed axe or mace you can get
Swap to
Nightfall or Annihilator when the raid asks you to keep their debuffs up
- Weapon Enchant
Crusader
Worth it on any weapon you plan to keep
- Head & Legs
Lesser Arcanum of Constitution if you need more health
- Shoulders
The Zul’Gurub shoulder enchant for melee
- Early Armor
Black Dragonscale pieces (Dragonscale Leatherworking)
Replace them with raid drops as they come
Tips & Tricks
Save Reincarnation for a wipe or as a battle-rez, not for a death you could have survived. A Shaman standing back up after a wipe means a faster recovery for everyone.
Read up on each boss before the raid. Some fights need 
Poison Cleansing Totem, 
Disease Cleansing Totem or 
Tremor Totem from you, and the group’s buffs come second on those.
Drop cleansing totems and Tremor Totem when slightly less than 5 seconds are left before the fear, poison or disease lands. They pulse every 5 seconds, and the timing decides whether they catch it.
Rank 1 Earth Shock is a cheap interrupt. You don’t need a high rank to stop a cast.
Use explosives like the 
Goblin Sapper Charge once the tank has solid threat, or save them for packs and dangerous adds.
Related Guides
- Shaman Leveling Guide (1-60) — the Enhancement build and totem quests that get you to 60
- Shaman Elemental DPS Guide (Level 60) — the caster side of Shaman damage
- Shaman Restoration Healer Guide (Level 60) — Chain Heal, downranking and the spec most raids want
- Molten Core Raid Guide — your first raid, and the first place your totems matter
- Blackrock Depths Guide — a big pre-raid gearing stop
- WoW Forever Shaman Guide — what changes for Shaman in WoW Forever