Class Talents
The Shaman tree is fantastic in that there are very few required DPS throughput talents, leaving us with many points to spend on utility for any given scenario. We will basically always pick up Frost Shock, Flurry, Lava Burst, Fire and Ice and Nature’s Fury for throughput.
Other high-priority talents are Astral Shift, Wind Shear, Earth Elemental, Spirit Walk/Gust of Wind, Elemental Warding, and Ancestral Guidance, which all provide very significant defensive utility or mobility.
The only talent that should be avoided is Nature’s Swiftness, as it directly works against Maelstrom Weapon.
Talent Builds
As of right now, there are two different viable talent builds for Enhancement.
Single Target Fire
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The fire build focuses on improving Lava Lash through Hot Hand and Elemental Blast through Elemental Spirits. In pure single target Ascendance is now worth taking over Primordial Wave because of the massive buffs to the talents behind it. Don’t take Deeply Rooted Elements in this build, as you don’t use Stormstrike that much.You also have the option to have strong funnel and cleave potential via Primordial Wave, Splintered Elements, Ashen Catalyst and Lashing Flames.
Single Target Physical
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The physical build, on the other hand, focuses on improving Stormstrike and Windfury Weapon and provides strong burst windows through overlapping Doom Winds, Feral Spirit, and Ascendance. Ascendance is a massively strong cooldown now that it got support talents in Static Accumulation and Thorim’s Invocation, which synergizes heavily with Legacy of the Frost Witch. Unless reliable burst is needed, you should talent into Deeply Rooted Elements, which will result in higher uptime than using manual Ascendance. It is key not to take Elemental Spirits in this build, as you want your physical damage buffed from the regular wolves. This build also no longer opts into Hailstorm, as you want to spend as many GCDs on Stormstrike as possible.
Mythic+ Fire
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For Mythic+, using the fire build, simply replace Windfury Totem, Elemental Blast and Storm’s Wrath with Crash Lightning, Crashing Storms and Elemental Assault. This build excels at cleaving and funneling smaller trash pulls. It provides very consistent upfront damage, as you have Primordial Wave for basically every pull.
Mythic+ Physical
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For Mythic+, using the physical build, simply replace Elemental Blast, Windfury Totem and any Lava Lash related talents with Alpha Wolf, Crash Lightning, Swirling Maelstrom and Crashing Storms. This build has much higher uncapped burst AoE potential using Doom Winds and Alpha Wolf than the fire build but sacrifices sustained damage and funneling potential to do so.