Enhancement Shaman Guide — Class Guides · WoW Classic

Melee damage with weapon enchantments, Stormstrike and Flurry. The usual leveling tree.

A caster and fighter in leather, and later mail, who calls on the elements with shocks and totems. Shamans heal, deal damage with Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, or fight in melee with weapon enchantments. More about the shaman

Class: Shaman
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Player versus player, Leveling
Top talent: Stormstrike
Popular builds: 3
Version: WoW Classic

How to play

Enhancement is the melee tree: a slow two-hander with Windfury Weapon, Flurry for attack speed after crits, Stormstrike for a strong hit that makes the target take more Nature damage, and Elemental Weapons and Weapon Mastery for more weapon damage.

A Windfury Weapon proc gives extra attacks with bonus attack power; on a slow two-hander a single proc can hit as hard as a spell crit. Stormstrike and Earth Shock make a strong pair: Stormstrike, then Earth Shock while the Nature bonus is up.

In Classic raids Enhancement is played mostly for its totems: Windfury Totem and Strength of Earth for the melee group. In battlegrounds and duels, Windfury procs make it one of the scariest burst specs in the game.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Classic.

Rotation and priorities

1Windfury Weapon on your two-hander.
2Windfury Totem or Strength of Earth for your group.
3Stormstrike whenever it is ready.
4Earth Shock right after Stormstrike, to use its Nature bonus.
5Lightning Shield for extra damage while leveling.
6Heal yourself between fights with Healing Wave.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Huge burst from Windfury procs on a slow two-hander.
Windfury Totem greatly boosts warriors and rogues in your group.
Can heal itself and others.

Weaknesses

Swingy damage: it depends on lucky procs.
Mana runs out in long fights.
Few raid spots as a damage dealer in Classic.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Weapon damageslow two-handers, 3.5 speed or more
2
Strength2 attack power each
3
Critical striketriggers Flurry
4
Hitto 9%
5
Agility
6
Intellect

What to look for

The slowest two-handed axe or mace you can find: Windfury and Stormstrike both hit harder with slow weapons.
Mail or leather with Strength, Agility and crit, plus some Intellect for shocks.
Crusader on the weapon.

Items worth chasing

Arcanite ReaperCrafted slow two-handed axe.
Hand of JusticeExtra attacks and attack power in a trinket slot.
Blackhand's BreadthA trinket of critical strike chance.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Elemental
Enhancement
Restoration

Stormstrike Totem Warden
DamagePvE
3120
0/31/20
Enhancement for melee groups: Improved Weapon Totems and Enhancing Totems buff your party, while Stormstrike, Flurry and Weapon Mastery add your own damage.
- Two-Handed Axes and Maces 1/1
- Improved Weapon Totems 2/2
- Elemental Weapons 3/3
- Weapon Mastery 5/5
- Stormstrike 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Windfury Burst
DamagePvP
2031
20/31/0
Two-handed Enhancement with Elemental burst: Stormstrike and Windfury swings set up shocks boosted by Concussion and Call of Flame.
- Elemental Focus 1/1
- Elemental Weapons 3/3
- Parry 1/1
- Weapon Mastery 5/5
- Stormstrike 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Stormstrike Wanderer
DamageLeveling
1833
18/33/0
A 1–60 path with a two-hander: Ancestral Knowledge, Thundering Strikes and Flurry for melee, Improved Ghost Wolf for travel, then Elemental for shocks.
- Elemental Focus 1/1
- Elemental Weapons 3/3
- Parry 1/1
- Weapon Mastery 5/5
- Stormstrike 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Stormstrike · top talent, up to 1
Gives you an extra attack. In addition, the next 2 sources of Nature damage dealt to the target are increased by 20%. Lasts 12 sec.
Ancestral Knowledge · tier 1, up to 5
Increases your maximum Mana by 5%.
Thundering Strikes · tier 2, up to 5
Improves your chance to get a critical strike with your weapon attacks by 5%.
Improved Ghost Wolf · tier 2, up to 2
Reduces the cast time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 2 sec.
Two-Handed Axes and Maces · tier 3, up to 1
Allows you to use Two-Handed Axes and Two-Handed Maces.
Flurry · tier 4, up to 5
Increases your attack speed by 30% for your next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike.
Elemental Weapons · tier 5, up to 3
Increases the melee attack power bonus of your Rockbiter Weapon by 20%, your Windfury Weapon effect by 40% and increases the damage caused by your Flametongue Weapon and Frostbrand Weapon by 15%.
Parry · tier 5, up to 1
Gives a chance to parry enemy melee attacks.
Weapon Mastery · tier 6, up to 5
Increases the damage you deal with all weapons by 10%.

Enhancement abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.