Enhancement Shaman Talents Guide

Enhancement has access to two distinct talent builds, which have been coined Elementalist and Storm by the community.

Elementalist builds focus on improving Lava Lash and other magic damage sources. Stormstrike is mostly relegated to a filler in this build. However, with the 11.0.5 changes, these builds have fallen a bit out of favor compared to Storm builds and are not currently recommended.

Storm builds, on the other hand, focus on improving Stormstrike and generating as much Maelstrom Weapon as possible to trigger Deeply Rooted Elements. In these builds Lava Lash is relegated to a filler spell, and while it was even fully omitted in the past, the talent tree changes make it into an appealing option to maintain and spread Flame Shock.

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The Shaman class tree includes very few mandatory throughput nodes and as such allows for a lot of flexibility in picking utility for any given content. These mandatory points are Fire and Ice, Frost Shock, Nature’s Fury and Enhanced Imbues. If you pick Elemental Blast in the spec tree, you should also take Lava Burst, as this turns into a second charge of Elemental Blast instead. If you are playing the Totemic hero talents, take Totemic Focus and Totemic Surge to improve your Surging Totem.

The most broadly useful talents that you will pick in almost any circumstance are your interrupt Wind Shear, your movement options Thunderous Paws, Winds of Al’Akir, and Spirit Walk, your defensive options Planes Traveller, Earth Elemental, Nature’s Guardian, Elemental Warding, Primordial Bond, and Stone Bulwark Totem, and your party wide utility, Wind Rush Totem, Ancestral Guidance, and Jet Stream.

You have access to a strong arsenal of AoE crowd control options in Capacitor Totem, Static Charge and Thundershock. Individual enemies can be handled through Hex or Lightning Lasso.

And finally there is a lot of niche utility, that may come in handy occasionally, such as Gust of Wind, Earthgrab Totem, Purge, Tremor Totem, Thunderstorm, and Poison Cleansing Totem. Totemic Projection and Totemic Recall can allow you to make better and more frequent use of Capacitor Totem and Wind Rush Totem if needed.

There are a few core nodes in the spec tree that you will pick almost certainly with any build for any situation. These are Windfury Weapon, Improved Maelstrom Weapon, Raging Maelstrom, Overflowing Maelstrom, Elemental Weapons, Feral Spirit, Elemental Assault and Witch Doctor’s Ancestry. A lot of these revolve about improving the generation of the specs main resource Maelstrom Weapon and they are so broadly useful and valuable that they are mandatory pickups.

Other talents generally fall into one of three categories - Elementalist nodes, Storm nodes or AoE nodes.

Key talents for Elementalist are Elemental Spirits, Molten Assault, Hot Hand, Ashen Catalyst, Lashing Flames, Ice Strike and Hailstorm. While Elemental Blast has been a key talent for this build in the past, the bonuses provided by the Stormbringer hero talents make it not mandatory anymore, although it is still optimal once you get access to the 4pc tier set bonus. In a similar vein, Primal Storm and Splintered Elements were staples of this build as well, but have been dropped in favor of Static Accumulation and Thorim’s Invocation because of hero talents synergy.

Key talents for Storm include Deeply Rooted Elements, Static Accumulation, Thorim’s Invocation, Doom Winds, Tempest Strikes, Storm’s Wrath, Stormblast, and Legacy of the Frost Witch. Ice Strike is taken as a filler main hand attack, Lava Lash and Molten Assault are taken to maintain and spread Flame Shock. Do not take Elemental Spirits with this build, as a significant amount of your damage is physical, unless you are using the Stormbringer hero talents.

Your AoE options are Fire Nova, Sundering, Swirling Maelstrom, Crash Lightning, Crashing Storms, Primordial Wave and Alpha Wolf.

While Blizzard made an effort to support both existing builds with both new hero talent trees, Stormbringer is the premier choice for all content, adding effects that are generally useful in all situations. After the rework in 11.0.5, however, Totemic is now a viable single target alternative if the fantasy appeals to you or fight timers lend themselves to it.

Stormbringer is focused around the new spell Tempest, which replaces your Lightning Bolt everytime you spend 40 Maelstrom Weapon or whenever you trigger Awakening Storms 3 times. You are also provided with a bunch of supporting talents, which further bolster your Maelstrom Weapon generation such as Unlimited Power, Supercharge and Rolling Thunder, so you can cycle through Tempest casts more quickly. Tempest is an extremely strong spell, boasting more than double the spell power coefficient of Lightning Bolt. Additionally, Arc Discharge and Voltaic Surge further improve your existing AoE tools, cementing this hero talent tree as a versatile and generalist option, which slots in smoothly into existing gameplay patterns.

Totemic is focused around the new spell Surging Totem, which deals damage and improves a wide selection of your other abilities while it is active, although it is not recommended to make use of all of them. Both builds focus a lot on supporting Sundering through Earthsurge and Molten Thunder, but in addition Storm builds aim to stack Totemic Rebound as high as possible while spawning physical wolves through Flowing Spirits, while Elementalist builds instead focus on improving and guaranteeing Hot Hand windows through Reactivity and the Fire mote.