http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOCyKbOCmAg

as you can see shammy tank = WIN!!!

Fyz

What "rotation" do I use now?

In Wrath we have a priority queue now instead of a repeating rotation. The reason is quite simple we have Maelstrom Weapon randomly hitting 5 stacks and since a Lightning Bolt instant cast is our highest dmg ability then we want to use that as soon as its available so we start building MW stacks again. Also we have different cooldowns from our other abilities so its very difficult to have a rotation that times this right.

However the major reason is that if you always use your highest dps ability as soon as its ready you are doing max dps. If you are using a lower damage ability when a higher one is available simply because the lower dmg one is next in the rotation then you are doing lower dps. Sticking to a fixed rotation will therefore give you lower dps.

The priority list for Enhancement Shaman is : (updated for patch 3.2.2)

MW5_LB - cast a Lightning Bolt when you have 5 Maelstrom weapon stacks - Chain Lightning does less dmg against a single target as it doesn't scale as well. For multiple target fights then naturally using Chain Lightning will be higher dps.

LL_QE - cast a Lava Lash if you have a Totem of Quaking Earth equipped and your Volcanic Fury buff is no longer present

MT - refresh your Magma Totem if it has expired or has only a couple of seconds left

FS - cast a Flame Shock if there is no Flame Shock debuff on target

ES_SS - cast an Earth Shock if there is still a Stormstrike debuff on the target

SS - cast a Stormstrike whenever its off cooldown and MW hasn't got 5 stacks- this does a fair whack of damage but more importantly refreshes the SS debuff on the target giving 28% extra nature damage (20% base + 8% glyph and you have the glyph because its our best glyph not having the SS glyph is lower dps). Note testing shows that getting 5 stacks of MW back up is more important than the Windfury proc so don't delay a SS waiting for Windfury as you did pre patch 3.0.

ES - cast an Earth shock whenever its off cooldown and the above are not available.

LL - cast a lava lash whenever its off cooldown and none of the above abilities are available - a lava lash does a reasonable amount of damage and whilst not fantastic its better than the alternative which is just keep on swinging white dmg.

LS - refresh your Lightning Shield if low number of orbs remaining

Totem refresh - if all else is on cooldown take the opportunity, if required, to refresh your totems.

Lava Burst will always have a cast time, it will reset your swing timer, that means no white damage, no windfury procs, no maelstrom stacks ie: no dps whilst casting, this is just bad and other than situations where you are rooted, trapped or otherwise unable to be in melee range it shouldn't be used by an Enhancement Shaman.

You may wonder how on earth you can track all these different cooldowns, well of course there are plenty of cooldown tracking addons out there including the one written for Enhancement Shamans (by myself) called ShockAndAwe - you can download it from here.

What Glyphs should I use?

The glyphs in order of max dps are :

Glyph of Stormstrike - top tier

Glyph of Feral Spirits, Glyph of Windfury Weapon, Glyph of Lightning Shield, Glyph of Flame Shock - second tier

Glyph of Flametongue, Glyph of Lightning Bolt, Glyph of Lava Lash, Glyph of Shocking - third tier

Glyph of Lightning Shield - This glyph is very good however its use will largely depend on if there is a lot of incidental/environmental damage that you are taking. In fights light ToGC25 Anub'arak with lots of environmental damage its really good.

Glyph of Shocking only reduces the GCD to 1sec not 0.5 sec as before and so is really quite poor.

Glyph of Flame Shock allows the Flame Shock to crit (both initial and DoT components) however the total this adds is highly dependant on things like T9 set bonus. It MAY be a better glyph for your gear set use the sims to check.

What Weapons should I use/What weapon imbues should I use?

Use SLOW weapons in BOTH hands, almost all of our abilities benefit from slow weapons and do more dps with slow weapons. Two handers have been dead for two years and will always give lower dps in PvE. We have abilities that favour faster weapons but they do a far smaller portion of our overall dps and use of a fast weapon to boost low dps abilities at the expense of high dps abilities is just plain daft. You do more dps with two slow weapons. Slow means at least 2.5 speed preferably slower ie: 2.6, 2.7, 2.8 speed. Late in patch 3.0.8 it was found that fast off-hands gave higher dps, with patch 3.1 changes to flametongue weapon the balance is firmly back with slow/slow weapons. DO NOT USE DAGGERS.

Weapon imbues - as you level you will have dual windfury weapon imbues, after you get 5/5 in Elemental Fury, the benefits of Flametongue on your offhand weapon start to match and then outweigh windfury. The exact point at which Flametongue becomes better depends on gear and is around 1000 spellpower, at 80 with decent gear and 5/5 Elemental Fury, Flametongue on offhand wins. Thus the recomendation is WF/WF slow/slow before level 80 and when you have decent gear with 1000 spellpower raid buffed swap to WF/FT slow/slow. (Remember that Flametongue gives 274 spellpower as does the Flametongue totem so these two alone put you well on the way to 1000 spellpower).

Please note the new Frozen Power talents for Frostbrand weapon sounds good however it is useless of PvE as bosses are immune to the slowing effect and thus don't take the extra damage from Frostbrand. ie: Frostbrand weapon is a PvP only weapon imbue.

This was recently specifically confirmed by Blizzard it is for PvP only.

What talents should I take?

A lot of it is a matter of personal choice, however a cookie cutter build that works well for PvE raiding is Spread of mana talents

Alternatively No mana regen talents build is an option that may work if your mana pool/regen is sufficient to carry you between Shamanistic Rage casts

Various other options are possible involving swapping points in Imp.Shields, Ancestral Knowledge, Reverberation, and the mana talents Elemental Focus, Shamanistic Focus, Imp.Stormstrike. In general however other than the talents mentioned the rest are core talents.

What stats on gear should I be going after?

Gear choices have changed a lot with Wrath mainly due to the fact we only get 1AP from 1 STR, down from 2, and now get 1 AP from Agi and also 1 AP from Int with talents. Also because we do a lot more of our damage from instant cast spells its a lot more important that these don't miss.

Gear stats priorities:

First you must cap your specials (Stormstrike & Windfury Weapon) : 8% hit required. We get 6% from Dual Wield specialisation so you need 2% from gear. At level 80 that's just 66 hit rating to cap specials.

Secondly you want to make sure none of your attacks are dodged or worse parried. NB you can avoid parries and blocks if you stand behind the boss when attacking, standing in front results in far more attacks that are avoided thus dramatically lowering your dps. To make sure your attacks aren't dodged when standing behind a boss you need Expertise, 26 Expertise on character sheet is 6.50% dodge reduction this means your attacks cannot be dodged. At level 80, that means you need 140 Expertise rating assuming you have taken then 3/3 points in Unleashed Rage talent. A lot of the expertise available comes from rings, neck pieces & trinkets as well as buff food, gems and enchants.

Third once you have capped your specials and your Expertise, you need to make sure that all those instant cast spells actually hit the target a missed spell is zero dps. To do this you need to cap your spell hit which is 17%. Note you get NO spell hit % from dual wield specialisation talent as that is Melee Hit only. However stacking hit rating is great because it helps your white damage too (due to merged spell hit and melee hit rating) which means that the 35% of your damage that is from regular swings of your weapons hit more often too.

In a raid you can expect to get a 3% hit buff from moonkin druids or shadow priests, this leaves 14% from gear. This means you need 368 hit rating or 342 if you are a Draenei. Remember that you don't need all that from gear you can get it from food buffs, gems and enchants. If you don't have a moonkin druid or a shadow priest in the raid you need the extra 3% hit from gear/food this means an extra 79 hit rating bringing the caps to 446 hit rating horde, 420 if you are a Draenei.

Ok so having capped all your specials, expertise and spell hit (which is not something immediately obvious to most players) what now can I now look at the "normal" stats. The answer is yes once you have capped all three elements above go for : AP, Haste, Crit, Agi, Armour Penetration. More hit isn't a bad thing either but a lot less important once you have capped spell hit. After that AP or Haste tends to be best with Crit/AGI/ArP somewhat lesser stats. What you go with will very much depend on your overall gear balance. For best results use the Simulator EnhSim available from here. NB. Enhancement is a hybrid spec stacking any one stat will tend to be bad.

Lastly you can take STR, Int, Spellpower but these are very poor stats compared with the above.

For heroics the expertise cap drops to 24 expertise and as you get 9 from unleashed rage that leaves 15 required which is 123 expertise rating. The spell hit cap drops to just 6% required, therefore you only need 158 hit rating to be capped for Heroics, or 132 if you are Draenei.

What Enchants should I use?

Current research (see http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t38419-enhancement_weapon_enchants/ ) suggests that Berserker is the best overall enchant. Accuracy is good if you are below the spell hit cap and this would take you up towards the spell hit cap. Mongoose & Titaniam Weapon Chain are viable cheaper options, if you aren't doing serious raiding.

Head - Arcanum of Torment (Ebon Blade rep)
Shoulder - Greater Inscription of the Axe (Sons of Hodir Rep) or the Inscription only Master's Inscription of the Axe
Cloak - Greater Speed
Chest - Powerful Stats
Wrists - Greater Assault or expertise if you need it or Leatherworker fur
Gloves - Crusher or expertise/hit if you need it or Engineers Hyperspeed accelerator
Belt - make sure you have blacksmithing socket "Eternal Belt Buckle" and put a gem in it
Legs - Icescale Leg Armour or Leatherworking equivalent
Feet - Icewalker - or possibly Tuskar's Vitality or Cat's Swiftness for the extra speed boost
Rings (if enchanter) - Assault

What Gems should I use?

Generally follow the principal that you need to be expertise & spell hit capped first then typically gem for AP or haste (use the sims to test what is best for your gear). Do not use more than blue gems than you need to fill the meta gem requirement ie: only 1 blue for Relentless Earthseige Diamond and 2 blues for Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. These blues are best achieved by using a Nightmare Tear as that counts as a blue, and possibly a Enchanted Tear that also counts as a blue. NEVER socket these gems in anything but a blue socket.

Belt Buckle : This can hold any colour of gem. So don't waste a blue or prismatic gem (such as Nightmare tear) in it. The reason is simple blue gems and the prismatics are not as good as red gems or yellow haste gems. You can't get a socket bonus putting a blue or prismatic in a belt buckle so you are wasting a gem that could go in a blue socket and get a bonus.

Don't worry about socket bonuses unless it's 12 AP or above, 4-8 Agi is simply NOT worth bothering about for a socket bonus. Always try to use either a 40 AP gem or a 20 haste gem depending on if you are going for AP or haste. You could also use a 20 AP/10 Haste gem if you are balancing your gear.

What Trinkets should I use? [needs updating]

There is an excellent forum thread comparing trinkets at http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t37332-enhancement_trinkets/. This suggests Mirror of Truth and Darkmoon Card Greatness are well up there and are trinkets you can get without raiding. Grim Toll seems to come out top of the Naxx trinkets (but only if you need it to get hit capped). Fury of the Five Flights is excellent too. Uludar trinkets will be added to this list once more is know about them.

NB This uses specific EP values that may NOT be appropriate for your own personal settings. Use the sim to determine your best trinkets. That article is only a guide.

What Relic (totem slot) should I use?

Currently the best Enhancement relic totem is the Totem of Quaking Earth, the elemental Totem of Electrifying Wind can be decent too.

What Addons should I use?

ShockAndAwe addon comes highly recommended by the rest of the Shaman community, and I will continue to try to make it support everything that an Enh Shaman needs in PvE. You can also export your stats from ShockAndAwe for use in the simulator to get your personal Enhancement Points values (EP values).

When you have your personal EP values (which stats benefit your talents and gear setup most) you can plug those values back into EquivalencePoints addon this will show the total value of the item to you on the tooltip. ie: something has 40 Str, 20 Agi, 30 hit rating vs another piece with 40 Agi, 10 crit, 40 Expertise - which is better? Equivalance points can show you by a single figure weighted using your personal EP values from the simulator.

If you also use EquipCompare addon you can see the tooltip for the item you are looking at (a drop, a quest reward or a badge item for instance) and the tooltip for the equivalent item you are wearing side by side. Both tooltips will have the total EP score on them so you can at a glance compare the two items.

I also recommend YATA as a totem management addon. You can get Yata from here.

How can I work out what gear is best for me?

Over the last month I've been working hard on getting the Rawr.Enhance model updated. With Rawr you can load your character from the armory and see dps breakdowns of what each ability should do with that gear. You can also look at upgrades, swap out items on your character to see how that changes your dps, all in an easy to use graphical interface designed to look like the in game character sheet. Rawr also has an optimiser feature so you can tell Rawr what items you have equipped or in your bags and it will swap pieces around to find the best in slot items from those you have available. This includes swapping around gems & enchants to get your best setup.

Another feature of Rawr for those who want more advanced statistics is the Export to EnhSim feature, with this you can change your gear in Rawr then click to export to EnhSim, and in EnhSimGUI click to import the Rawr data, then click to simulate, ie: you are only ever 3 clicks away from a detailed analysis of your gear in EnhSim with Rawr.Enhance.

You can get Rawr from the main Rawr website

Other Common Questions

Should I consider using two handers - even for PvPbold text

Two handed weapons for Enhancement shaman are just plain bad. You are far too reliant on the random number generator, a missed swing is a huge dps loss and your stacks of Maelstrom weapon are dramatically slower. All in all you will do a lot less dps with a two-hander. Sure you get the occasional lucky streak but you have to display a particular brand of self deluded cluelessness to think that this equates to anything other than luck. Your dps will always be higher dual wielding.

In PvP you spend far too much time doing really low damage just trying to get in melee range that two handers rare and lucky big proc streaks are just not worth it. Resilience will mitigate the vast majority of the burst of two handers anyway. Instead of trying to base your PvP failings on random procs, learn to play and do solid dps with a dual wield build.

Does Dual Wield Specialisation Affect Spell Hit

No. It doesn't now, it hasn't in the past, it would be nice if it did, but it doesn't. Dual Wield Specialisation is melee hit % only. This is because it grants hit % not hit rating.

Rule of thumb for Mana Regen Talents :

From a full mana bar dps for 1 minute and see what your mana left is with your current spec :

If you have < 20% left or went oom then you need more mana regen talents
If you have around 20% left you are optimally balanced
If you have > 20% mana left you have too many mana regen talents.

Note the more you are above or below 20% the worse the situation is. I've seen some people after 1 min of dps have over 50% mana left so clearly they could be doing higher dps if they drop some mana regen talents for dps ones.

BTW 20% is chosen as a guide mana figure to give you a buffer in the event of having to move around alot or being stunned etc.

Which mana talents to drop and in what order?

Imp.Stormstrike, Elemental Focus, Imp.Stormstrike (remaining point), Shamanistic Focus.

Try dropping one at a time depending on how far from the 20% you were.

How do our Feral Spirits work? How is their damage calculated and what buffs do they benefit from?
Wolves have 331 base strength and get 2 x AP from their strength + 31% of the AP of the Shaman rising to 61% with the Glyph of Feral Sprits. They do 206.17 dps modified by AP at usual rate of 14 AP = 1dps. They have a base attack rate of 1.5 speed which is boosted by haste.

Woves get any buffs cast on them once summoned, this includes auras/totems. So they typically get haste boost from WF totem and Str boost = 2 x AP from SoE totem.

Wolves do NOT benefit from the Shaman's crit or haste ratings. They don't have hit and expertise per se instead their chance to hit is based on the Shaman's hit and expertise. If you are yellow hit capped then they won't miss (this is my experience further detailed testing is required to PROVE this is the case).

The key thing is that once summoned they benefit from any change in the Shammy's AP and any buffs on them. So if you get an AP proc from a trinket say then they get 31% (61% glyphed) of that bonus AP immediately. If they are in range of a totem or pally aura they get a buff. If something is cast on them directly they get that buff. Note it needs to be cast on each wolf separately.

Take special note that if you summon wolves and after they are out you Bloodlust/Heroism then they benefit. If you summon them AFTER Bloodlust/Heroism they DO NOT GET THE BUFF. Therefore always summon first Bloodlust/Heroism second. Note a trick if you have more than one shaman in the raid is to have them Bloodlust/Heroism first once your wolves are summoned, then 3 mins later when you summon your wolves the next time you can use your Bloodlust/Heroism once they are summoned. Note this second Bloodlust/Heroism will not buff you or the raid as you have the Sated/Exhausted debuff, however it WILL buff your wolves as they are freshly summoned and have no debuff.

ShockAndAwe has built in pet tab activation so you can verify the above by simply looking at the tab and summoning them then checking out the tooltips.

Few… alot to take in
Love to all my shammy brothers and sisters <3

Fyzzie

What talents should I take?

There are two standard specs for PVE elemental players. and there is only one minor difference between the two:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hiI0qcdItGfzAo0xxco
The early standard for elemental which loses 3 points in Convection for Elemental Warding. This ensures that you take the minimum amount of damage from random AoE that happens during any encounter.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdItGfzAo0xxco
The slight variation that gives you a little more mana efficiency. With the 3.2 changes to Chain Lightning, mana becomes a little more important than before and you may need to try both specs to see which works for you and the rotation you will be using.

What "rotation" do I use now?
Rotations for an elemental shaman have changed. With most fights being high mobility fights, a standard "rotation" will not measure up completely as stopping and starting a rotation multiple times to move will only lower your DPS. Instead, there are now 3 types of 'Priority' rotations for elementals to use.

Chain Lightning on Cooldown:
-Always Flame Shock when the DoT expires.
-Cast Lava Burst if it is off cooldown and above criteria are met.
-Cast Chain Lightning if it is off cooldown, Lava Burst is on cooldown, and above criteria is met.*
-Else, cast Lightning Bolt.

*Chain Lightning will come before Lava Burst in this priority assuming it has the opportunity to jump to additional targets!
This priority will give you the maximum DPS for a priority rotation. With the changes to Chain Lightning, casting it every time it is off cooldown is a DPS increase over only spamming Lightning Bolt between every Lava Burst cast.

Chain Lightning after Lava Burst:
-Always Flame Shock when the DoT expires.
-Cast Lava Burst if it is off cooldown and above criteria are met.
—-After casting Lava Burst cast 1 Lightning Bolt and 1 Chain Lightning.
-Else, cast Lightning Bolt.

This priority rotation gives more leeway to your mana. Casting LvB->LB->CL ensures that your Lava Burst crits the target and grants you Clearcasting which will give you a guaranteed reduced mana cost on your Chain Lightning (your most mana intensive spell).

No Chain Lightning: Fyzzies fav!!
-Always Flame Shock when the DoT expires.
-Cast Lava Burst if it is off cooldown and above criteria are met.
-Else, cast Lightning Bolt.

Hurting for mana? Just died and self-rezzed? Sit back, relax, and fit Lightning Bolts between your Lava Burst casts.

Knowing what your character is capable of rotation wise will help you do more DPS. A good elemental shaman will switch their priority on the fly as needed based on their mana and situation (Ex: A shaman typically following rotation 1 dies, gets battle rezzed, and falls into rotation 3 until he has enough mana to eventually get back into rotation 2 and 1).

What Glyphs should I use?
Major (BiS):
Glyph of Flame Shock - The periodic damage dealt by your Flame Shock can now be critical strikes.
Glyph of Lightning Bolt - Increases the damage dealt by Lightning Bolt by 4%.
Glyph of Totem of Wrath - When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem's bonus spell power for 5 min. (84Spell Power at maximum rank)
Glyph of Lava (NOT LAVA LASH!) - Your Lava Burst spell gains an additional 10% of your spellpower.

Minor:
Glyph of Thunderstorm - Increases the mana you receive from your Thunderstorm spell by 2%, but it no longer knocks enemies back.

That's great, but which do I use?
Standard elementals will use: Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, and Totem of Wrath.
EXCEPTIONS:
If you're using 2 pieces of the elemental shaman tier 8 set or more you will not need Glyph of Flame Shock. In this case, your best set is Lightning Bolt, Totem of Wrath, Lava.
If you have ~4000 Spell Power when raid buffed OR 4 pieces of tier 9 or more, your best glyph set is Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lava.

What stats on gear should I be going after?

The most important stat for an elemental shaman (and most raiding classes period) is Hit Rating. The cap for hit rating on level 83 (raid boss mobs) is 17%, or 446 rating. You should have spec’d into Elemental Precision, which means you only need 14% hit on your gear, or from other raid buffs. The following buffs give you hit rating:

Heroic Presence – 1% (Alliance only, All draenei)
Misery – 3%** (Shadow Priests)
Improved Faerie Fire – 3%** (Balance Druid)
** Misery and Improved Faerie Fire DO NOT STACK!

If your raid contains these buffs/debuffs, this leaves 263 hit rating on gear for Alliance, and 289 hit for horde. Until you are hit capped, you should gear, gem, and enchant mainly for +hit rating. (26.232 hit rating = 1% hit)
As a base reference, these are your stat priorities for gear and enchants.
Hit > Spell power > Haste > Crit > Int

Hit: HIGH to NO priority- Ss the best stat point to point until it caps, then becomes useless. Try to hit as close to cap as possible without going under.
Spell power: HIGH priority- Gives most DPS per point. Prioritize this on gear above other DPS stats, no questions asked. Gives a return to ALL spells at any gear level.
Haste: MEDHIGH to HIGH priority- Haste starts out as a good stat and becomes an amazing stat as your gear gets better. Haste is always a better stat point for point than crit UNTIL your bread-and-butter nuke, Lightning Bolt, hits the one second cap. Until then, it is always better to gear for haste above crit.
Crit: MEDIUM priority- The lowest of our true DPS stats. It gives returns to all but one spell but doesn't stack nearly as well as spell power and haste do. Only prioritize this above haste assuming your Lightning Bolt is capped at or below a one second cast time.

What totem relic should I use?

There are only a few relics out there for elemental shaman but I'm going to help you pick up only the best.
A few relics look amazing on paper but are hindered by a high internal cooldown (Totem of the Elemental Plane). These are your best totems that are readily available to any shaman just hitting 80!

Totem of Electrifying Wind
Totem of Hex
Thunderfall Totem
Totem of the Void (level 70)

Totem of Electrifying Wind comes out above Hex and Thunderfall due to having a low internal cooldown which allows it to be up nearly 100% of the time. Totem of Hex comes up second due to Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning being a much larger percentage of your total damage than Lava Burst. Thunderfall is the third and lowest of the top end totems. Totem of the Void even comes up above the afforementioned Totem of the Elemental Plane due to the maximum possible uptime of it being 33%.

What Enchants and Gems should I use?

Enchants:
The following enchants are considered to be the best available in game assuming you are hit capped (Profession based enchants are NOT included here. Most professions [Engineering and Tailoring, I'm looking at you] are direct increases from another enchant or to a previously unenchantable slot)

Cloak - Greater Speed (23 haste rating)
Chest - Powerful Stats (10 to all stats)
Bracer - Superior Spellpower (30 spell power)
Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (28 spell power)
Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality (15 stamina and 8% run speed increase)* OR Icewalker (12 critical strike and 12 hit rating)
Weapon - Mighty Spellpower (63 spell power)
Shield - Greater Intellect (25 intellect)
Legs - Sapphire Spellthread (50 spell power and 30 stamina)
Head - Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (30 spell power and 20 critical strike rating) Requires Revered with Faction: Kirin Tor
Shoulder - Greater Inscription of the Storm (24 spell power and 15 critical strike rating) Requires Exalted with Faction: The Sons of Hodir

• It is well debated that the less time you spend moving, the more time you are spending casting. The 8% run speed gives you that little bit of a boost to get you back and DPSing faster.

If you are short of the hit cap, these enchants may be of help with you:

Gloves - Precision (20 hit rating)
Weapon - Accuracy (25 hit and 25 critical strike rating)*
*Enchanting your weapon with hit+crit over spell power can generally be counter productive as the spell power gained from Mighty Spellpower generally outweighs it. I would only recommend this enchant as a last ditch for hit cap. Consider regemming or switching a few pieces of gear around (check those spreadsheets!) before re-enchanting your weapon with Accuracy.

Gems and Gemming:
Meta - Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (+21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage. Requires two blue gems to activate)
Blue - Glowing Dreadstone (12 spell power and 15 stamina) OR Royal Dreadstone (12 spell power and 5 mana every 5 seconds)*
Red - Runed Cardinal Ruby (23 spell power)
Yellow - Reckless Ametrine (12 spell power and 10 haste rating)**

• For DPS, Royal is a slightly better choice in long fights due to the minor increase in MP5 leading to more Chain Lightning casts, though if survivability is your problem then Glowing should be your only option.

** Runed Cardinal Rubies gem better in yellow slots if the socket bonus does not warrant a DPS increase.

You should only use 2 Blue gems in order to activate your meta gem. All other blue sockets should be ignored. All other slots should be gemmed accordingly.

What Addons should I use?
Class Specific:

Totem Timers - Tracks your totems remaining times, water shield remaining time and charges, and flametongue imbue remaining time. a great mod for all shaman.
Call of Elements - Assuming you don't need the additional timers with the above addon, Call of Elements is the most lightweight totem tracking mod I have ever used. I will easily recommend it to anyone.
BONUS - Okay, it's not a particular addon but I am in love with the UI of another shaman in our midst here at Mmo-champion. Shamtasticle's Ultimate Shaman UI can be found at http://www.mmo-champion.com/class-shaman/shaman-ui-syronius-of-kilrogg/

Cooldowns/Casting:

TellMeWhen - A simple, lightweight mod that can tell you when your abilities are on or off cooldown, when flame shock has fallen off your target, when your weapon imbue has fallen, etc. It's amazing for such a light addon…when coupled with…
NeedToKnow - Allows you to monitor yours or any other important target's buffs or debuffs as timer bars. Personally what I use to track Flame Shock on my target due to the simplicity to set up, use, and modify.
Quartz - Lets you modify yours and and many others casting bars in a multitude of ways.

Raiding:

Omen - Threat meters.
Recount - Damage meters.
XPerl, Pitbull, Grid - Unit Frames. Used for keeping track of all those people around you!
Bigwigs, Deadly Boss Mods (DMB), DXE - Boss ability trackers.
Bartender or Dominos - Bar mods
Geist - Gives a quick action bar on your cursor with 1 keystroke. Good for those abilities you don't use very often (rezzing, Astral Recall, professions, etc)

Long read hope it helps
Love to my shammy brothers and sisters <3 x

Fyzzie

What talents should I take?:

The current main stream spec that most restoration shamans are using is http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hZ0xxhZx0euIeoxkrIRt.
If you are you are struggling with mana and can't use healing wave then: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hZ0xxIZx0euIxoxkrIRt.
Just note that elemental weapons only gives you 45 spell power and nothing else. It does nothing to the hot that earth living provides.

What stats on gear should I be going after?

In 3.2 with chain heal and healing wave viable and the tidal waves changes the stats we should be stacking have changed.
You first want to achieve a basic level of spell power, int and crit before you can stack any other stats.
A good balance is around 2000-2500 spell power (depending on level of gear) and 30% crit on your profile.

Crit
Crit is very important as it is our main source of mana through Improved Water Shield. It also provides the 10% physical damage reduction, which priests can also bring and it also procs Ancestral Awakening. If you are tank healing Ancestral Awakening is a great for a boost in HPS.

Haste
Since tidal wave changes haste now affects all your spells greatly. Haste helps chain heal (you should be looking at a 1.8 chain heal with t8 set bonus). As lesser healing wave won’t be going under 1second cast, haste is allot more effective than in 3.1. It also shortens Healing Wave due to its long cast time. You should be stacking haste as far as you can until you start going oom in fights or unbalance your stats.

Mp5
Mp5 and improved water shield is the only source we have to regan our mana. Therefore Mp5 is a very important stat. In 3.2 it was buffed on gear so you should not have to gem for it as it comes in bucket loads from gear.

Intellect
If you are going oom during fights then swap some haste gems for int. This stat is great for shamans as we get spell power from it from Nature's blessing and Mana tide and replishment scales with intellect as well as giving additional Crit. But with improved water shield changes in 3.2 and buffed Mp5 you should be finding it very hard to go oom.

Spell power
There is plenty of spell power on gear so you should not be gemming this stat. In 3.1 we was mostly using instants and very short casts, therefore spell power was the best stat to max hps. As it is on every piece of gear you should be using and haste being very beneficial to our heals, it is not worth gemming.

What Enchants and Gems should I use?

Right now I am gemming haste in every slot and have found it very productive.
If you are finding that you have a good amount of haste then the gems you can use are:
20 Haste in Yellow Sockets. (if you need mana you can swap this for the +20 int gem)
12 Spell Power and 10 Haste in Red Sockets.
10 Haste and 5 MP5 in Blue Sockets.
Meta should be Insightful Earthsiege Diamond. You will see this proc all the time and it is by far the best.

Enchants:
Helm: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44159
Shoulders:http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44135
Cloak:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47898
Chest:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60692
Bracers:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60767 or http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=57691 (leather workers only)
Gloves:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44592
Legs:http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41604
Boots:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47901 Surviving is just to important.
Weapon:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60714
Shield:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60653
Rings:http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44636 (Enchanters only)

What Trinkets should I use?

If you need mana use mana return/intellect Trinkets such as Je'Tze's Bell, Pandora's Plea or Meteorite Crystal.
If you are fine on mana then go for any of the spell power trinkets found in Ulduar or Trial of the Crusader.

What glyphs should I use?

Major:
Earth shield is by far the most important and best in return of HPS.

You then have three other major glyphs to choose two from.
Lesser healing Wave: If you are ever on tank healing then you should have this glyph.
Chain heal: Now in 3.2 you should be using chain heal more, you want this glyph if you are using chain heal alot.
Riptide: If you are never tank healing and therefore do not need the lesser healing wave glyph then you can use this.

Minor:
Water shield is the only one that will affect raiding, rest is up to you.

What relic should I use?

There are 3 different totems that are viable:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47665 and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45114 if you use chain heal regularly.
If you use lesser healing wave more then the only good one you can get is from arena: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42598
If you can't get to high ratings then there is a easier one to get in the form of: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42596

How should I be healing now?

Earth shield should always be on a tank. If there is no tank for that encounter then put it on a caster for interrupt protection.

Lesser healing wave should be used for tank healing and raid healing where chain heal wont be useful. Due to the high chance of it critting with tidal waves it is a great and easy way to keep up the 10% reduced physical buff.

Riptide has many uses now, it can be an instant heal if someone drops low. It also hastens Healing wave and increases your crit chance of lesser healing wave.

With alot of haste chain heal is viable agian. You should be able to land a good amount of chain heals, it is great for aoe raid healing.

Healing wave is great when you know you can land a large needed heal. You should only use it with Tidal waves up. An example of this is phase 1 Mimiron during the plasma blast. You should never be spamming this spell, unless you enjoy being out of mana.

Nature swiftness should always be kept ready to use in a needed situation, now with its shorter cooldown you can use this ability alot more. The same applies for tidal force. You should use this ability when you know a large amount of damage is incoming. Or you can macro it to nature swiftness for an even bigger heal.

What addons should I be using?

There is a huge selection of addons which you can use for many situations.
The two most important you need for shaman healing are:

Totemtimers: This addon is great for monitoring totems and shields. There is also YATA and many others. But I have found totemtimers to be the best.

Raid frames: I personally use grid. I found this addon essential. You can set it up to see who your earth shield is on, who has the riptide hot, who has the 10%physical reduction buff. There are others, but I have always found grid to be the best.

I will keep these updated for future patches….
Love to my shammy brothers and sisters xx

i shall be ready and waiting in the chapel for you!!

Welcome to the Hunter thread:)
This is where questions, answers and rubbish is written. Please dont be shy, I can't write all the nonsense here.

Your befuzzled CL
Flash

I was there "that night" and could feel your frustration through my monitor. I do understand your predicamant and wish you luck with whatever you decide. Thank you for all the raids and fun we have had though, you have been an invaluable member of Unity and we hope to see you again.

Good Luck

Flash

Desporus “DOG” Chapman, the world famous Bounty Hunter will be joining UNITY for a special one off Training Exercise in January.

However due to a mix up at customs, his team and equipment have been confiscated and replacements need to be found.

The mission is Scarlet Monastery, however “Special Rules” apply, which you need to be aware of before signing up. These rules are :-

(1) The event is open to Level 80 toons only, as this is not intended as an opportunity to gear up alts.

(2) As this is a Friday Night Fun Run, drinking is of course “Mandatory“.

(3) This event will be a Naked Run. (Undies Only)

(4) No item equipment is to be worn at the start of the event. The only items that can be equipped during the run, are items which you loot on the night. The loot will be set to “Round Robin”.

(5) The goal is to complete the 3 sections of Scarlet Monastery, skin on skin Hawaiian Style.

(6) The toon who is deemed by the group, to have the best gear at the end of the run, will receive fantastic goodies, not worth writing home about.

So if you think your hard enough to join the DOG, sign up for another fantastic night of fun.

“Regulators Mount Up”

Thank you Bra

Aloha

Desporus “DOG” Chapman

For further information on the “DOG” please checkout the below links

http://www.dogthebountyhunter.com/

and all what you said is 100%

specialy " veteran members not being able to dodge the huge Yeti running towards them for the “nth” time "

most people still dont know what to do "tactics + dps " , but they know /roll

Goodluck Echidna and have the real fun of the game

Lately I don't have enough time to play and whenever I do, I need to get the most out of it in terms of progress. Raids have not been fun for me for more than a month now, with all the wipes, afks, and tactics upon tactics every single time.

As you may know I live in Greece which means that when for most people of the guild is 23:00 and they feel tired, for me it is 01:00 and I have to wake up at 06:30 next morning. Losing my sleep to do something fun is one thing, but losing my sleep to do 30% raiding and 70% waiting is the least frustrating.

Before deciding to leave I tried to find interest in other things than raiding but at this point of the game it just doesn't seem to work for me. I have paid the game for the next 6 months and I'm facing a dilemma, playing 4 hours some days of the week with the guild I care for and not having fun? OR playing 4 hours /3 times a week with an indifferent guild that will provide steady progress?

I care about UNITY deeply, which is why I haven't left so far. If I had more time, and knew I could commit to it, I would have applied for the GM position and would try to fix and organize things as I know I can. Although, this is not the case and I have to rely largely on people who have a difficult task ahead of them and still need to find their pace with raid leading and guild management.

I’ve been with UNITY for almost two years and I’ve always been mostly quiet and easy going, two weeks ago, I got so frustrated with veteran members not being able to dodge the huge Yeti running towards them for the “nth” time, that I could barely hold myself not to go all out on the raid channel. I would like to think of this as a leave of absence so I won’t lose interest for the game and I won’t become an angry person which no one will want to raid with. In time when things are better or I can get more involved I may return if you still want me to.

As to what I will be doing, I have two options; 1st is to go to the BDX and 2nd is to transfer to Twilight’s Hammer server where are many Greek guilds and I can find friendlier raiding hours. Haven’t decided yet I may try both and see what suits me better.

Sorry for the long post,
Love, Echi

Have fun :))

Gr Night

The leading explorer and botanist Dr Desporus Nubcake Jones cordially invites you to join him on another amazing adventure through old content.

On this occasion we take on the bosses of Zul'Aman in attempt to retrieve the “Holy Lettuce” and that’s just the tip of the Iceberg.

However as with all my Friday Night Fun Runs, some “Special Rules” apply, which you need to be aware of before signing up. These rules are :-

(1) The event is open to Level 80 toons only, as this is not intended as an opportunity to gear up alts.

(2) As this is a Friday Night Fun Run, drinking is of course “Mandatory“.

(3) Due to a outbreak of “Trouser Rot” in the area, no “Leg Items” are allowed to be worn during the event, as this could lead bloating of the knee’s and a nasty rash.

(4) Due to a concussion received while boosting in Deadmines, I have forgotten all the tactics for the boss fights. So bring some repair money and bandages.

(5) As this is not a gear run, all loot will be vendor’d and all proceeds will go to the Stormwind Multi Storey Knackers Yard for unwanted mounts.

The event will start at Light’s Hope Chapel in EPL. This is so we can have a quick pray before we start. We will then proceed to Zul'Aman via the now customary “Land Mount” race.

Special prizes from the Ironforge Auction House Fire Salvage, will also be awarded through out the evening, to players who demonstrate special feats of bravery.

I hope that you can join me for what is going to be another evening of fun and mayhem.

Kind Regards

Dr Desporus Nubcake Jones

On the 2nd half I agree DPS should be Higher for some people then i look at others and i think omg their gear thier dps HOW
WoW Heroes is great for checking your DPS there is also a program called Rawr BLOOODY great and we can thank logie for getting me hooked on to these

//Sonijs,Auro,Celindre

Best of luck on what ever you are going to do!

Just a quick note to say like a few others recently im quitting unity.

Good Luck.

Mongite

As you will be aware our Guild has been going through a tough period and the last thing we want is for members to feel it necessary to leave the guild, due to comments being made by others.

Our Guild is a delicate social community of like minded people, who should respect and support each other, to improve both on a personal level and as a team. Only by this support can the Guild grow and move forward.

Can I therefore ask that you think of others members feeling when making comments in Guild Chat, treat others as you wish to be treated yourself and please lets support each other as a community through this difficult period.

Desporus

First thank you too all those that could make it to the first of many ALL guild meetings, there where a few points brought up the major 3 where

Recruiting - As you have all probably noticed is that U N I T Y Is doing some major recruiting, and I would like to get your guys involved, if you know anyone in game or R/L that may want to get UNITED with us then pls encourage them to go the Website and apply. THIS IS the only way to get a Main into U N I T Y. Nifflodia also brought up a very good point, when the New members do join get them involved and welcome, like we where when we first joined (though I seem to remember that I was called NOOB a lot which stuck unfortunately) esp. the Gnomes, the rumour going around that we like to be sacrificed is a lie, and the apparent mount at Zul Amun that is meant to Drop when you sacrifice 200 gnomes at the same time is also not true, no matter how much you want it to be true.

Main Classes we need are Pala's any spec but a few tanks would be good. Priest Healers, Shammies any spec. But all classes welcome

DKP - THIS IS A MAJOR UPDATE

MAIN RAIDS

10 DKP for coming to the Raid
2 DKP for each additional boss downed

there will be a BONUS 5 DKP added to those Peoples that have SIGNED up and TURN up Fully Loaded and ready for 2 hours Raiding

THESE RAIDS WILL BE ONY AND TotC
THESE WILL BE DKP RUNS TotC GEAR WILL BE MAINS FIRST ALTS 2ND

EXTRA RAIDS

in addition to the main Raids we will PROMOTE GEAR RUNS and ACHIEVEMENT RUNS by give everyone in the raid an extra 5 DKP for Turning up and Completing a MAJORITY of the Raid, these will be the other Main Northrend Instances NOT 5 man.

THESE WILL NOT BE DKP RUNS
MAINS ALTS COMPANIONS maybe the OCCASIONAL TREE can roll for items dropped here the only rule will be MAIN SPEC OVER ALT SPEC.

This will be Monitored by CL and RL (in addition I would like both these Classes to get the ADDON HEADCOUNT for ease of Knowing who is there and what they won)

And 3rdly MAIN VS ALTS
Once you have nominated your main you will not be able to change it for 6 months. (of course if you really get sick of it and delete the toon, an alt will take its place :P

Quince

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Broadband-down-your-phone-line/PC-gaming-problems-on-National-Broadband/td-p/10748

Ps have a great Xmas and hope to see you around then

Guys its been fun, but im quitting wow for now.
Im very busy at work and only able to play like 4 hours a wk.
I hope ill be back during cristmass, if things slow down a bit.

take care all, have fun :)

koriban

Good news for Virgin Media customers, they admit they have a problem and that they are working on a fix. Take some comfort that it's almost every major pc online/multiplayer game that is affected.

Read for yourself here http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Broadband-down-your-phone-line/PC-gaming-problems-on-National-Broadband/td-p/4782

Flesh

nice to see ya again , u still wanna WoW ? u miss alot of the game and i miss playin wid ya

good to see that u ok and everythin fine .. hope to see ya soon ** Best wishes **

Take care Buddy

MJr.

Someone said in GC one day that Unity is lovely social wise but raiding sux. I dissagree. If I wanted to devote my life to playing a computer game just to get to see all game content before all other players on the server I would be in a raiding guild.

I want to play a computer game when I want some recreation from work, when it bad weather outside and I cba go visiting a mate or when I am too tired to watch teli. I chose wow because of the loverly persons I get to meet, the fun and giggles we sometime have is fantastic recreation :)

And, even if Unity is a social guild that makes it possible to have a life, I still get to see ALL the game content avalible. I have been in Nax, Ulduar, VoA, Onyxia, TOC 10 and 25 - so how can anyone say that unity sux raiding wise?

Anyone moaning over slow progress, remeber that faster progress has a price you may not want to pay. I hope we all remind our selves about what a fantasticly cheerful, social AND progressive guild we actually have :)

PS. Fantastic initiative on friday Desp. I will come if I can, not sure yet as I am called away for dinner and don't know how long I will stay. x

until friday

koriban

However some special rules will apply to this very special run, so please be aware of the following before you sign up :-)

(1) As this is a Friday run, drinking is Mandatory.

(2) I am not a Raid Leader as will be evident on Friday.

(3) I don’t know the tactics of the boss fights, so hopefully someone will sign up that does. :-)

(4) I don’t know my way around Karazhan so have borrowed Niffy’s compass and map.

(5) Level 80 toons only please. This is a fun run and not intended to gear up alts. I don’t want any arguments over loot.

(6) As for loot, this is not a DKP run. All loot with be rolled for and then vendor’d with all proceeds going to the Wilfred Fizzlebang Memorial Trust. (as he my favourite NPC lol)

(6) There will be a special prize on offer for a guildie in the who downs a boss wearing the stupidest hat competition.

So with those rules in mind, please signup for this special fun event.

Invites start at 20:30 GT.

As I don't have a key for Karazhan, in true Engineering style I will be blowing the doors open at 21:00 GT ish.

Hope to see you there.

Desporus

Karl

UNITY was and still is a great guild and those that have stayed are giving the support. Maybe my message reads different to what I meant it to say.

All I wanted to say is that everyone need to give their little bit into the guild, if everyone gives a little they will get so much back, but unfortunately some just like to sit back, do nothing and moan about it when things don't go the way they want. But hey, we all have our own ways.

Anyway, moving on, anyone seen Sexy's missing 70 levels she had yesterday???? heehee

You commit to the community as long as you are a part of it, but once you for one reason or the other are hindered to participate any longer your comittment also is over. Some manage to build more substainable relationships outside this game by developing a relation outside the game, for example by hanging out together in chat or through meeting up and doing stuff together in a physical miliu - but in most cases one have to accept that when people leave the activity that brought them together, they no longer have any commitments to people still belonging to this community.

This is nothing that can be prevented and has nothing to do with not standing up for our guild. When people got to go they got to go. Those who stays are staying because they can and have time, and as far as I can see the members in Unity are supporting this game community all they can by showing up for raids when they can, helping new members to fit into the guild and by creating a nice climate in the guild chat.

Guys the guild has had a major change, things will take time, bear with it. Give Quince the support he needs and deserves, its a hard job looking after a guild full of different people, some with very strong opinions, but we all have to work together.

Unity is not alone with its problems, Twisted are going through the same, but one difference that I can see is that people are making the effort to support me, where has it gone here?

If you believe in UNITY work together, help each other and make it the guild it was again, stop moaning and leaving, instead give some constructive opinions or advise. Change takes time, ride the rough and see the clear on the horizon.

Remember guys this is a game and leaders, officers, etc, take their own time out to organise and help the rest of you who just like to pop in and do your thing then log. This change is good, remember work together and then everyone will enjoy.

By the way, I make no apologise with my bluntness here, I am not here to offend anyone but trying to help and tell you how it is seen from an outside point of view.

So remember Quince, we are all here to help you, don't be frightened to ask for help as you definately won't be able to do everything on your own, trust me, been there, seen it, done it and wore the t-shirt.

P.S. Quince you are not a tank !!! :P

Love Flashy:)