Today’s guide is all about enhancement pvp shamans. You might be wondering, why a PvP post in a leveling guide blog, well… we all level for a reason, and mine is to get characters to level 80 PvP & arena.
So, given I love writing about talent builds, I’m gonna share the build I’m using now.
This build is specialist. It won’t work very well outside PvP.
The build also works on a critical strike heavy theme, we want crits to trigger elemental devastation (extra melee crit chance), and when we do crit with spells & shocks we will crit hard thanks to elemental fury.
We’re also trying to reel in a few weaknesses us as enhancement shammy’s have – lack of stuns and low survivability.
So here’s my 17/54 PvP enhancement build, and below that, notes on how these talents work together:
17/54 Enhance Build
I want to talk about a few key things for you new level 80 Shamans, and you other Shammy’s out there that are just lost on how to make this class work in PvP.
Oh and for you doubters it DOES work in PvP – I know of a few enhance shaman’s in arena PvP in top 5 for 2v2… so the problem is not enhance shamans, its YOU.
First thing – if you’re a new 80, you might want to draw points from other talents & max out our stam buffing talent. Until you have a full set of deadly or furious gear your health will lag around 15k HP and with our chain for protection you’re just a 1 shot rogue magnet.
So 5 points in toughness for new guys, drop it when you’re in your pvp gear.
Now lets talk about the elemental side of the tree.
You’ve got a good 6% damage reduction if you max out elemental warding, and a 2 second stun from improved fire nova totem. These are musts, and go well with spirit wolves for stunning and staying alive when you use them right.
I’ve chosen to go 4 points in elemental fury, but you might take another point to get the full 100% crit damage increase on spells, and take one out of elemental warding – especially for those of you with some survivability in your gear.
You can’t go too far wrong in the enhance tree as long as you don’t do something stupid like putting points in earth’s grasp or guardian totems, or god forbid anticipation.
Again if you’re well stam’d up and have decent gear, also leave toughness alone.
Get your hp from your gear not your talents.
The key talents you need to keep in mind for this pvp enhance build are the 2 points in frozen power, 2 points in earthen power and 2 points in imp ghost wolf. Bind imp ghost wolf to an easy hot key or mouse button and use it regularly.
Frozen power is kick ass for stopping runners, or stopping some annoying super fast rogue from dancing around you. Its also great in WSG where you can stop flag carriers for a vital few seconds (glyph it if you’re doing a lot of WSG).
Earthen power’s snare & root breaker is also awesome, especially in AV if you have a lot of friends that just got nailed by an ice nova.
Make sure those spells are all bound to easy to remember hot keys and practice till you never fail.
In the next few days I’ll write some follow ups on exactly how to use these talents to their full advantage, glyphs, addons, and a few gear ideas you might have not even known existed.
Related posts: