Enhancement is the Shaman's melee spec, and in Forever it fights with one two-handed weapon: shamans can't dual wield. Your white swings and Windfury Weapon's extra strikes do about half of your damage. Stormstrike comes back every 8 seconds, and the globals between go to Fire Nova, the shocks and the instant Lightning Bolts that Maelstrom Weapon gives you. Mana is your limit, and Forever's new talents turn your Intellect into attack power and spell damage. Simulated on a one-minute single-boss fight, the build in this guide does 779.6 DPS and finishes 10th among 25 damage specs.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

• Three bosses at once. Fire Nova hits every enemy near your fire totem, every 6 seconds with Improved Fire Nova. On a three-minute fight against three bosses it is 36.2 % of your damage and Enhancement ranks 7th.
• Your own Windfury. Windfury Weapon's extra attacks are 19.3 % of your damage on a single boss, and they need no other Shaman in your group.
• Little to lose on long fights. Your one long cooldown is Rage of the Farseer. You do 779.6 DPS on a one-minute single-boss fight and 726.4 DPS on a three-minute single-boss fight, so your rank barely moves with the fight's length.

Weaknesses

• Middle of the table on one boss. On a three-minute single-boss fight you rank 11th of 25. White swings and Windfury attacks are half of your damage (29.9 % and 19.3 %), and only Rage of the Farseer speeds them up, for 25 seconds in three minutes.
• Mana runs out. Fire Nova costs 520 mana, and neither Convection nor Shamanistic Focus cuts it, so the rotation spends your bar to empty on three minutes. Major Mana Potion is worth 2.6 % of your damage there.
• Your spells miss more than your weapon. Against a raid boss your weapon stops missing at 9 % hit, but your spells keep missing until 16 %. With this set's 9.0 % hit, Fire Nova, the shocks and Lightning Bolt still miss about one cast in twelve.

On every fight

Enhancement rises against three bosses, where Fire Nova and Dragonbreath Chili hit all of them. Fight length matters little, because Rage of the Farseer is the only cooldown that sits idle on a long fight. Each fight in the table is a link that switches the guide to it.

Races

Horde players should pick Orc on a one-minute single-boss fight. Tauren take the two- and three-minute single-boss fights and three bosses for three minutes with Endurance's 1 % hit, which counts for your spells as well as your weapon. Orcs take both one-minute fights, because Blood Fury (10 % attack power and spell damage for 15 seconds) goes out at the pull beside Rage of the Farseer. Windshaper's 1 % haste and Troll's Berserking trail them.

For the Alliance the only Shaman race is Dwarf. Mace Specialization gives 1 % crit to your melee and your spells while you hold a mace, and the Alliance set's The Unstoppable Force is one. The race board below shows how close the races sit, so play the one you want.

What a Shaman brings to the raid

Strength of Earth Totem gives your party 53 Strength for five minutes, and the table shows its worth to the damage specs it helps. Mana Spring's improved value and Mana Tide Totem need Restoration talents this build doesn't take. Windfury Totem and Grace of Air are compared with each other on the rankings' Buff values tab instead, and a party can stand only one of them. Your Windfury Weapon already switches Windfury Totem off for you, so choose the air totem for the rest of your group. The benchmark gives your group a second Shaman for these totems, so your own add nothing to your number.

Changes

How this build's number on this fight has moved, from one simulator or game-data update to the next. Each update has its own entry on the Updates page.