Yet another WoW Blog

Hello everyone =).  It’s been a week now since we’ve had patch 3.3 and I have to say, as other fellow bloggers have, I am loving the changes to Enhancement Shaman.  After playing a bit with our new Fire Nova I have to say it is absolutely great and I love it.  And I hope they wont change it nor nerf it as some have suggested to me Blizzard might (though I doubt it).

Enhancement Shamans really needed an AOE tool they could maximize dps on, specially on trash pulls, and while Flame Shock was fun, and still is.  It was a pain during trash deciding if that mob was worth using that Cooldown on or not.  After raiding two days with the same spec I had prior the patch, I decided to change it a bit to include the Improved Fire Nova talents.  Since then, I find myself coming up in the meeters usually on top or very close pulling up to 9, 10 and at one time 11k on the peak of trash pull.  And as most would agree, those are fun Fun FUN numbers to see =).

I did have problems though with my spec during heroics, I would constantly go OOM if I wasn’t careful to use Shamanistic Rage at the right time, so this new spell can drain your mana if you are not careful.  However, I have little to no problem in a raid environment, even when chain pulling (especially when chain pulling), since I can let loose on using Shamanistic Rage with more confidence.  This new spell regardless if you are careful or not will definitely drain your mana pretty fast, so be ready.

I also made some glyphs changes, I have replaced my Flame Shock for Windfury Glyph once again.  Since windfury is affected by weapon damage, as your weapons get better, the windfury glyph makes better sense.  Checking in detail my combat log, I have indeed seen the effects of this change resulting in more windfury procs.  I do no longer worry about flame shocking trash, except some very specific cases where I know for sure that mob will be alive for a long time (the time of the spell).  I do worry however in flame shocking bosses, even without the glyph.  And I try to refresh as it runs out, never before, never too long after.  In order for Flame Shock to become a better choice you must absolutely time the debuf to make sure that constant tick counts down completely.  If you are not careful, you might as well stick to earth shock and your DPS output will be a lot more stable and consistent.

One last important change I made was the gems.  Previously I had been geming for haste, since the patch AP has a much clearer benefit in comparison.  While haste is still an important stat, you get more overall from geming AP and sticking to haste on gear.  I feel this is a great change as it makes it a lot easier to gem your way to higher gear and not have to worry as much as when to gem for AP and haste based on other stats.  I also switch out that Victor’s Call trinket with expertise on it and decided to gem 4 expertise gems on instead without sacrificing DPS.  This gives me freedom to upgrade trinkets for better ones without worrying much about expertise.  I decided to put these expertise gems on higher level items I’ve had dropped recently, this way I make sure I get the most out of those gems since these items I am sure I wont be replacing anytime soon.  Gems in BWL are insanely expensive, and since I have not been pvping, I’ve felt forced to buy them .

Another important change I’ve made is my offspec, I am no longer PVPing as enhance since my Arena Partner quit wow some months ago, I really did not bother to find another arena team and stop pvping then.  I though I would make better use of my offspec and gear in the bank by switching to resto.  And it has been indeed a great change.  It is funny how it takes forever to find a group when I go into the new LFG system as Damage compared to how little it takes when I signup as a Healer, so I find myself doing dungeons more often as healer.

I learned some interesting details as resto as well, I had no clue the tier 9 Elemental Helm and Shoulders are better for resto than the resto pieces themselves and I was shocked to see this.  Yet it is true.  As commented here in EJ: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t24796-shaman_restoration/ the haste benefit from these pieces makes them better than the pieces Blizzard itemized for us.  So of course, I grabbed those for my healing set.

So that’s about it for now =) some fun changes with Fire Nova, easier to pick stats with AP and obvious glyph choice with better weapons, I hope you all enjoy the new way to play enhance.

Cheers,
Jose R. Lopez, aKa: Chimi.

Some important credits are due, please check out the fellow bloggers bellow who have also commented on these patch changes:

• http://bighitbox.com/bhb/2009/12/16/updated-enhancement-for-33.html
• http://shamanonramen.com/2009/12/first-impressions-of-3-3/