World of Warcraft Dragonflight saw a complete overhaul of all the classes, and one thing’s for certain: they look pretty great. Thanks to this expansion’s (current) lack of borrowed power, WoW has become significantly more alt-friendly, opening up the game so that you can genuinely play as many classes as you want without many, if any, inhibiting factors.

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While Shaman generally got some of the best improvements throughout Dragonflight’s beta, Enhancement Shaman, in particular, is in a wonderful spot. Between how fun and fluid the class is to play and how many options it has across both its main and Enhancement talent tree, this specialization truly shines in Dragonflight.

Why Enhancement?

Here are reasons you should consider choosing Enhancement:

1. It’s a super, super flashy specialization. Between all the lightning, fire, and wind, it looks and feels fantastic to play.
2. It’s very fast-paced. While there can be some downtime depending on your luck and resource management, this specialization will have plenty of buttons to press all the time.
3. It offers loads of utility for your dungeon or raid group, so if you want to be one of the more helpful people in your party, Enhancement will allow you to do that. This is generally true for all Shaman specializations, though, not just Enhancement. That’s thanks to their main talent tree, as you’ll see later in this article.

Best Races

While you can pick any race you want as your Enhancement Shaman, if you’re looking for some extra benefits, here are some races that can provide them.

While some of these are better than others, Goblins offer the most with their Haste buff, considering how valuable it is for the specialization. Trolls offer a Haste buff too, but it’s a temporary, burst-window buff, not a passive buff, giving Goblins a more consistent supply of the secondary stat. At the end of the day, though, pick what you want to play, as these buffs are relatively minor in the overall scheme of things.

Main Shaman Tree

Main Shaman Tree
Row One
Lava Burst	A very good source of damage. Simple as that.
Astral Shift	One of your key defensive spells.
Chain Lightning	One of your most important area-of-effect spells. You also don't have a choice here, as the game gives you this talent for free.
Row Two
Earth Elemental	Very good utility cooldown that can help your tank out in sticky situations.
Wind Shear	You need your silence.
Planes Traveler	Buffs up your Astral Shift a bit.
Frost Shock	Offers decent synergy with later talents in both talent trees.
Maelstrom Weapon	Your rotation revolves around this talent. And again, you don't have a choice here, as the game gives you this talent for free.
Row Three
Fire and Ice	This is a flat buff to your fire and ice damage, which is particularly useful if you're running an Elementalist build (as you'll see in the later sections)
Capacitor Totem	A phenomenal area-of-effect stun. Great for dungeons.
Row Four
Ancestral Defense	This gives you some extra survivability.
Guardian's Cudgel	Buffs your Capacitor Totem, giving it a second stun. Also amazing for dungeon content.
Purge	Very strong utility that also generates Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
Flurry	This is a very important talent, as the attack speed it offers increases the odds of your Windfury activating.
Row Five
Wind Rush Totem	Invaluable utility for group content.
Nature's Fury	Not the best talent, but you need it to get to some later ones.
Row Six
Elemental Warding	Increases your survivability more.
Nature's Guardian	Another great talent to increase your survivability.
Winds of Al'Akir	Since you don't have much mobility outside of Wind Rush Totem, this is a great talent to have.
Brimming with Life	A convenient talent that can allow you to Reincarnate more often. Particularly useful in dungeons.
Row Seven
Healing Stream Totem	Help out your healer(s) a bit; why don't you?
Improved Lightning Bolt	This is a big damage boost for you, especially when you need to spend your Maelstrom Weapon stacks on a Lightning Bolt.
Spirit Walk	Great for mobility and getting out of sticky situations.
Row Eight
Swirling Currents	Keep helping your healer(s) out.
Thunderstorm	This is another nice area-of-effect form of crowd control, but never take this in PvE content unless you also have Thundershock (talent in the next row).
Row Nine
Thundershock	Causes your Thunderstorm to knock enemies up instead of away. A very necessary talent if you're running Thunderstorm.
Row Ten (Keystone Talents)
Ancestral Guidance	This is generally the best keystone talent on the main Shaman tree, as it offers the most for your group (and can even let your healer take a breather for a short time).

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While the above tree is a decent guideline to follow, when it comes to the main tree for Shamans, they have an incredible amount of diversity in terms of self-sustain and utility. They have so many interesting talents that can be used in plenty of niche situations, so there is always the chance that from dungeon to raid to world content, you’re going to be swapping some around. That said, Lava Burst, Wind Shear, Flurry, and Wind Rush Totem are your must-haves no matter what.

Also, here are a couple of talents to consider taking that weren't taken in the above tree:

• Hex: This is a great single-target crowd-control spell to have.
• Totemic Projection: This is generally a good talent for raids; however, relocating your totems can also be helpful in some dungeons, so don’t count it out just yet.

Don’t worry too much about optimization when leveling and doing your world content in general. This is the time to pick the talents you want to play around with and try them out. Considering you can change them anywhere, have fun with your options. This goes for the Enhancement talent tree as well.

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Physical Enhancement Trees

Physical Enhancement Tree For Dungeons (AoE)
Row One	Stormstrike
Row Two	Windfury Weapon Lava Lash
Row Three	Forceful Winds Improved Maelstrom Weapon (2/2) Molten Assault (2/2)
Row Four	Unruly Winds Raging Maelstrom Fire Nova
Row Five	Doom Winds Sundering Overflowing Maelstrom Swirling Maelstrom
Row Six	Storm's Wrath Crash Lightning
Row Seven	Elemental Weapons (2/2) Crashing Storms
Row Eight	Feral Spirit Deeply Rooted Elements
Row Nine	Witch Doctor's Ancestry (2/2) Legacy of the Frost Witch (2/2) Static Accumulation (2/2)
Row Ten (Keystone Talents)	Alpha Wolf Thorim's Invocation

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Physical Enhancement Tree For Raids (Single-Target)
Row One	Stormstrike
Row Two	Windfury Weapon Lava Lash
Row Three	Forceful Winds Improved Maelstrom Weapon (2/2) Molten Assault (2/2)
Row Four	Unruly Winds Raging Maelstrom Ice Strike Hailstorm
Row Five	Doom Winds Overflowing Maelstrom Windfury Totem Swirling Maelstrom
Row Six	Storm's Wrath Stormflurry
Row Seven	Elemental Blast Elemental Weapons (2/2)
Row Eight	Feral Spirit Ascendance
Row Nine	Witch Doctor's Ancestry (2/2) Legacy of the Frost Witch (2/2) Static Accumulation (2/2)
Row Ten (Keystone Talents)	Thorim's Invocation

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Physical Raid Tree Import String: BcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIJJpAJRSSiAJJSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAlIEhEtQUgUSSSBQJRSgG

The above talent trees encompass both dungeon/area-of-effect content (left image and first expandable table) and raid/single-target content (right image and second expandable table) for Physical Enhancement Shamans. There are a few differences between the two (which will be addressed in the next sections), but let’s go over the most important talents for a physical build in general:

• Raging Maelstrom: An awesome talent that allows you to generate up to ten stacks of Maelstrom Weapon at a time, making it more forgiving if you generate more than five.
• Storm’s Wrath: The greater the odds of triggering a Windfury Weapon, the better.
• Thorim’s Invocation: This is your go-to keystone talent, as it provides the greatest value in a physical build.

Key Dungeon Talents

These are the most important talents for dungeons to ensure you can deal big area-of-effect damage:

• Sundering: Big damage and a short stun. Enough said.
• Crash Lightning: This is integral when it comes to splash damage, as it also combos with your Stormstrike.
• Fire Nova: Another big area-of-effect ability; even though it doesn’t do too much damage, its main use is generating another quick five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon.
• Alpha Wolf: This is the central keystone talent that causes your Feral Spirits to deal area-of-effect damage as well.

Key Raid Talents

These are the most important talents for raids to ensure you can deal big single-target damage:

• Ice Strike: This talent is quite good for single-target damage, as not only is it a single-target spell, but it also buffs the damage of another single-target spell (Frost Shock).
• Elemental Blast: An absolute must-have for single-target damage.
• Windfury Totem: In raids, there are many more people in your group, so it’s far more beneficial there than in a five-person dungeon group.
• Ascendance: Being able to control when you use Ascendance is much better than the random activation from Deeply Rooted Elements for raids since you’ll have Lust up for every boss fight. That way, you can better control your burst window.

Elementalist Enhancement Trees

Elementalist Enhancement Tree For Dungeons (AoE)
Row One	Stormstrike
Row Two	Windfury Weapon Lava Lash
Row Three	Improved Maelstrom Weapon (2/2) Molten Assault (2/2)
Row Four	Raging Maelstrom Fire Nova
Row Five	Sundering Overflowing Maelstrom Swirling Maelstrom Hot Hand (2/2)
Row Six	Storm's Wrath Crash Lightning Ashen Catalyst
Row Seven	Elemental Blast Elemental Weapons (2/2) Crashing Storms Lashing Flames
Row Eight	Primordial Wave Feral Spirit
Row Nine	Primal Maelstrom (2/2) Witch Doctor's Ancestry (2/2)
Row Ten (Keystone Talents)	Splintered Elements Elemental Spirits

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Elementalist Dungeon Tree Import String: BcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIRSaRCiIhIJJUSkAAAAAAAAAAAAAQJCRIRLEFIlkkUAUSkEA

Elementalist Enhancement Tree For Raids (Single-Target)
Row One	Stormstrike
Row Two	Windfury Weapon Lava Lash
Row Three	Improved Maelstrom Weapon (2/2) Molten Assault (2/2)
Row Four	Raging Maelstrom Ice Strike Hailstorm
Row Five	Sundering Overflowing Maelstrom Windfury Totem Swirling Maelstrom Hot Hand (2/2)
Row Six	Storm's Wrath Ashen Catalyst
Row Seven	Elemental Blast Elemental Weapons (2/2) Lashing Flames
Row Eight	Primordial Wave Feral Spirit
Row Nine	Primal Maelstrom (2/2) Witch Doctor's Ancestry (2/2)
Row Ten (Keystone Talents)	Splintered Elements Elemental Spirits

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Elementalist Raid Tree Import String: BcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIJJpEJgkEikkQJhAAAAAAAAAAAAAQJCRIRLEFIlkkUAUSkEA

The above talent trees encompass both dungeon/area-of-effect content (left image and first expandable chart) and raid/single-target content (right image and second expandable chart) for Elementalist Enhancement Shamans. There are a few differences between the two (which will be addressed in the next sections), but let’s go over the most important talents for an Elementalist build in general:

• Raging Maelstrom: Take this for the same reason as you would a physical build.
• Storm’s Wrath: Take this for the same reason as you would a physical build.
• Ashen Catalyst | Lashing Flames: These two talents are extremely important as they greatly enhance your Flame Shock and Lava Lash abilities.
• Splintered Elements: This keystone talent offers a massive Haste buff that simply can’t be ignored.
• Elemental Spirits: This keystone talent allows for some more reactive gameplay that can truly pay off if you properly react to the element of your Feral Spirits.

Key Dungeon Talents

These are the most important talents for dungeons to ensure you can deal big area-of-effect damage:

• Fire Nova: This is here for the same reason as it is in the physical build, but it can do even more damage with an Elementalist build if your Feral Spirits are summoned as fire wolves.
• Crash Lightning: Take this for the same reason as you would a physical build.

Key Raid Talents

These are the most important talents for raids to ensure you can deal big single-target damage:

• Ice Strike: Take this for the same reason as you would a physical build.
• Windfury Totem: Take this for the same reason as you would a physical build.

Rotation

The abilities of Enhancement Shamans, regardless of what type of talent build you’re running, are extremely interconnected. In other words, most of their spells have some type of synergy with another one of their spells, making the gameplay quite interactive.

With that in mind, you can boil down their rotation to generating and spending Maelstrom Weapon stacks. Maelstrom Weapon stacks up to five times (ten with the Raging Maelstrom talent) and makes your next castable spell an instant cast with increased damage/healing.

Here's a sample rotation if you're running an Elementalist area-of-effect build:

The key here is not over-capping your Maelstrom Weapon stacks; you want to spend them as soon as you can upon reaching five (or above) stacks.

Thus, the gameplay requires you to react effectively to both your Maelstrom Weapon instant casts, and the normal cooldown resets of Stormstrike or Lava Lash, depending on which talent build you’re running.

Some Tips

• Always remember to slap on your Windfury Weapon, Flametongue Weapon, and Lightning Shield. Since they each last for an hour, it’s easy to forget about them, and starting a dungeon or raid boss fight without any of those buffs can be quite detrimental to your damage output.
• Always make sure your Flame Shock is on as many enemies as possible, and don’t forget to reapply it either manually or with Lava Lash before it wears off.
• Avoid over-using your Maelstrom Weapon generators, as you risk having a nice chunk of downtime after spending those stacks if all your generators are on cooldown.
• Lava Burst (or Elemental Blast) should be your primary single-target spender of Maelstrom Weapon stacks, and Chain Lightning should be your primary area-of-effect spender. Only use Lightning bolt if your Lava Burst is on cooldown and you need to spend the Maelstrom Weapon stacks, or if your Primordial Wave is up, and you can use it as an area-of-effect ability.

Macros

One of the best macros you can have as a Shaman lets you send an ability to your cursor’s location (like quick cast). Normally, your totems need to first be selected, and then you must click where you want to deploy them (at least those that don’t automatically get placed at your feet). This macro combines that into one step, sending your totem to your cursor’s location:

/cast [@cursor] *insert ability name here*

Some examples:

• /cast [@cursor] Capacitor Totem
• /cast [@cursor] Wind Rush Totem

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Stat Priority

Looking at both the physical and elementalist talent builds as the main options for Enhancement Shaman, they have slightly different stat priorities from one another. Thus, while Agility is still their primary stat, their secondary stat priorities differ slightly.

Physical:

1. Haste
2. Mastery
3. Versatility/Critical Strike

Elementalist:

1. Mastery
2. Haste
3. Versatility/Critical Strike

The key difference is Haste and Mastery, with Versatility and Critical Strike being equally unideal for either talent build. So, once you’ve decided on which kind of Enhancement talent tree you want to pursue, aim for your most important secondary stat accordingly.

Remember that these rankings don’t mean that Mastery is bad for Physical builds and Haste is bad for Elementalist builds; rather, one is slightly better than the other.

Don’t let these secondary stat priorities prevent you from equipping gear that provides a flat upgrade to your Item Level and primary stats if it’s that much better.

Gems

Bearing in mind the different stat priorities of a physical and Elementalist build, your gem of choice depends on which talent build you’re running. As such, make sure you know which one you want to have before buying (or crafting your gems).

• Since the physical talent build favors Haste over Mastery, you’ll want Keen Ysemerald for a lot of Haste and a little Mastery.
• Since the Elementalist talent build favors Master over Haste, you’ll want Keen Neltharite for a lot of Mastery and some Haste.

While you could opt for gems that only give either Haste or Mastery for their respective talent builds, it’s better to boost both stats. Even though both types of talent builds have their preferred secondary stat, Haste and Mastery are still great on them both. Also, if you need a cheaper alternative (green quality gem instead of blue), focus on the most important secondary stat for the build you’re running.

Depending on what crafting tier level the gem is, it will offer different numbers of stats.

Enchants

There are many enchants to choose from, but below are the most important ones that you should strive for no matter what. And again, remember that the value of the enchant depends on its crafting tier.

Your talent build (physical or Elementalist) should dictate which ring enchant you go for.

Gear

Gearing While Leveling

Through crafting and world content in general, gear has become rather accessible in Dragonflight. However, please note that while you’re leveling, just pick up the quest rewards (or dungeon rewards if you’re dungeon grinding) as they improve, and don’t worry too much about your stats or item level.

Gearing At Level 70

Before the release of Mythic Plus and Raiding content, there are a couple of key ways to gear up: Dungeons, World Quests, and crafting. While you should aim for the 382 pieces from crafting, you can also shoot for regular Mythic dungeons, which reward gear at 372 Item Level.

While physical and Elementalist talent builds will want slightly different gear, anything that has both Haste and Mastery is a winner. But if you can only find gear with one of those stats, it doesn’t matter if the second one is Critical Strike of Versatility.

Here are some good pieces to aim for in the new dungeons before the release of Mythic Plus and Raids:

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