The Bloodskull School of Enhancement

[Nothhelm]

I don't play on Nostalrius but I consider myself a good Enhancement Shaman and I made a guide elsewhere so I figured I'd copy-paste/adapt it for ye, knowing that this realm is very populated and some Enhancementers might need some advice. Keep in mind, my style of Enhancement is designed around 1v1.

Part I: Tricks and Tips
https://youtu.be/Tpa-T8eiJMM

Part II: Spec
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hVfzxcZxifzm0ut
I put my extra talent points into Elemental because I like the benefits more.

Elemental

Slightly more damage with shocks, chain lightning and lightning bolt
Longer range on Earthbind
Fire, frost, and nature spells do less damage to you
Clearcasting
Cooldown on shocks reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
6 seconds without losing casting time when crit by physical damage

Restoration

Healing spells cost slightly less
Improved self rez
Totems cost less
+3 spell and melee hit
Passive 70% chance to not lose casting time when healing
Grounding and Poison Cleanse totems' range increased from 20 to 30 yards. Tremor Totem is 30 yards by default. Other totems aren't worth mentioning.

Part III: Gear & Stats
You should invest in reliable stats such as stamina, intellect, spellpower, and hit (if you don't have the resto hit talent). If all your gear is strength and agility you'll find yourself relying on windfury, which is an awful way to play. You need to be well rounded to address every class in combat. Below are my stats and items to give you an idea of what to aim for.

Strength 207
Agility 160
Stamina 375
Intellect 230
Armour 2942 (35% reduction)
General Stats 5030 health | 4924 mana | 14 defence | 7.3% dodge | 5.5% parry
Melee Stats 418-550 damage | 19.2% melee crit | 4 melee hit
Spell Stats 164 spell power (in practice more like 194 due to relic macros) |10.2% spell crit | 3 spell hit
With Shield I lose damage, stamina, 30 spellpower and gain 3000 armour

Head Stormcaller's Diadem (15 Intellect 13 Spell power)
Neck Master Dragonslayer's Medallion
Shoulders Pauldrons of Elemental Fury (18 Spell Power)
Back Cloak of the Scourge (5 Resistances)
Chest Ghoul Skin Tunic (100 Health)
Wrist Wristguards of True Flight (9 Stamina)
Hands Vek'lor's Gloves of Devastation (15 Agility)
Waist Angelista's Grasp
Legs Leggings of Elemental Fury (15 Intellect 13 Spell power)
Feet Boots of the Shadow Flame (Minor Speed)
Finger 1 Signet Ring of the Bronze Dragonflight
Finger 2 Archimtiros' Ring of Reckoning
Relic Totem of Rage, Totem of Life, Totem of the Storm
Two-Hander Severance (30 Spell power)
One-Hander Misplaced Servo Arm (Weapon Chain)
Shield Stygian Buckler (7 Stamina)

Part IV: Trinkets

I love on-use trinkets and I highly recommend collecting a bunch of them, like the ones shown above (I carry all of those on me at all times). Having the right trinket for the right enemy is a big deal. No matter how good a static trinket like Drake Fang might be seem, it just can't compare with having the right utility trinket at the right time. Below are just a few of the countless applications of a large trinket collection.

The Guardian Summoning Trinkets: can chase people out of stealth; are very troublesome for casters due to the spell pushback they cause; can keep your enemy from bandaging when they put you into a crowd control; are useful as anti-sap if you remain in Ghost Wolf form until the Rogue has finished using Cheapshop, Gouge, and Kidney Shot then activate one while still in Ghost Wolf form.

The Burrower's Shell: prevents Death Coil from healing the Warlock if Death Coil's damage gets absorbed by it; when combined with lots of health and a grenade can allow you to survive Counterspells; rage starves Warriors.

Eye of Moam: is incredibly useful when fighting Demonology Warlocks who have high resistances; boosts the damage of Flametongue significantly.

Wushoolay's Charm of Spirits: is amazing when used right against Rogues, Warriors, and Mages. One tactic is to break a Rogue's cheapshot with your PvP trinket, then immediately pop Charm of Spirits, keep lightning shield up and do whatever it takes to prevent them from blinding you, stealthing, sapping you, and bandaging.

Part V: Addons
https://youtu.be/AgJ0NflxbE0

Part VI: Macros
THIS SECTION ASSUMES YOU HAVE THE "SUPERMACRO" ADDON.

script if ((UnitMana("player")>þ) or (buffed("Clearcasting")=="buff"))then cast ("ð"); else cast ("ð(Rank 1)");end
Replace ð with the name of a spell. Replace þ with how much the top rank of that spell costs. This macro will cast the top rank of a spell if you have enough mana or clearcasting, or cast the lowest rank if you don't. It's pretty useful for Earth Shock because you don't need to assign a second keybind for rank 1 Earth Shock to interrupt people when you're oom.

/script if ((UnitMana("player")>450) or (buffed("Clearcasting")=="buff"))then cast ("Earth Shock"); else cast ("Earth Shock(Rank 1)");end
Mine looks like this. Keep in mind your shocks might cost less mana than mine if you're specced that way.

/equip Misplaced Servo Arm
/equip Stygian Buckler
/equip Severance
This is my weapon swap macro. Obviously you'll probably have to insert the appropriate item names.

/equip RELIC OF YOUR CHOOSING
/cast SPELL APPROPRIATE TO THE RELIC
Since the relic slot is treated as a weapon slot you can switch between relics in combat. In effect what a series of macros like this does for you is allow you to have the benefits of every relic.

/equip Totem of Rage
/script if ((UnitMana("player")>410) or (buffed("Clearcasting")=="buff"))then cast ("Flame Shock"); else cast ("Flame Shock(Rank 1)");end
Above is an example.

/script u=UnitResistance y="target" a=u(y ,0) h=u(y ,1) f=u(y ,2) n=u(y ,3) fr=u(y ,4) s=u(y ,5) z=u(y ,6) SendChatMessage(UnitName(y).." has "..a.." Armour, "..h.." HR, "..f.." FR, "..n.." NR, "..fr.." FrR, "..s.." SR and "..z.." AR.", SAY)
With this macro you can tell the resistances of NPCs, including Hunter pets and Warlock minions. This information can help you if, say, a Hunter sics their pet on you and you need to kill it and need to know which shock would be least likely to be resisted. If you use it on a felhunter and find it to have extreme levels of resistances then the Warlock is likely Demonology and you should use anti-Demonology tactics such as Purging Soul Link from their pet.

[Mulen]

not one place HASTE is mentioned ?

how good is 1% haste compared to 7 agil or 7 str

personally i might go for haste on gloves and head ( or just head )

[Killstick]

Well the gear thing is totally useless imo; you'd be better of making some sort of "budget list" since the gear you refer to is not only unavailable atm when it becomes availabel only few % of the players will have acces to it. I don't know if you did this, but i think you have to be realistic in your item choice because some items will just never go to a shaman.

For stats: I don't know if i would go with that much spellpower or would go more HP/AP but i do agree that ENH shouldn't ignore intelect. Big WF crits are fun, going oom just isn't. But alot of your spelldmg items are high tier items (AQ40/Naxx) Atm you don't really have alot of those options where you get strength and spelldmg on 1 item.

Maybe thats just my playstyle. As enhance when i can wait out the WF proc i will just use my shocks etc pure as support (kiting, interupt etc). Only vs stuff like warrior and rogue i would use them agressivly because it just is a dps race at times. OFc when you are doing 1v1 or duel it doesn't matter that you are oom after.

I do like your idea of going for spellpower on your 2H since crusader is random and will often proc on your WF which is too late.

For talents; Elemental warding; i think this is most useful towards a mage, then again i don't see how a shaman has any problems vs mages. I would prefer some points in reduced mana cast. Enhance goes oom fast enough as it is. Its the same reason i would lean towards resto. For reduced mana cost and reduced interupt on heals (without having to be crit first). As an enhance shaman i don't see myself casting anything but healing spells when having the chance to be interupted. CL or LB only to finish runners but they can't interupt you if they are running. Also the 3% + hit is nice since not alot of gear we are going for has it.
I personaly like the imp reincarnation for BGs as it influence the game alot.
I think it comes down to chosing between a dueling/1v1 spec (Enh + ele) and a more BG oriented spec (Enh + resto).

[Throe]

tl;dr

start leveling bruh

[Jurary]

Getting that 3% spellhit talent is pretty much a must if you can't fill the gap with gear. It feels like 50% of your shocks are resisted without it.

[bdan]

I still prefer resto. skip stormstrike and get natures swiftness. That will make you better at 1v1 than this spec imo. I think this spec is much more offensive and is better in group play where you hopefully wont be the focused target.

[Killstick]

I still prefer resto. skip stormstrike and get natures swiftness. That will make you better at 1v1 than this spec imo. I think this spec is much more offensive and is better in group play where you hopefully wont be the focused target.

Yeah 0/30/21 would be the best dueling spec. For BG i'd go 0/32/19.

Also not liking the pure stam agi items you put in. I feel like agi is just a waste of ilvl for shaman. I didn't look them up but i think i would swap out your neck, wrist, gloves, waist, ring.

I'm still lvling my shaman but i'll try to test all the tricks. As i am curious about what works here and what in vanilla. Don't remember all that stuf

[Jurary]

I still prefer resto. skip stormstrike and get natures swiftness. That will make you better at 1v1 than this spec imo. I think this spec is much more offensive and is better in group play where you hopefully wont be the focused target.

Yeah 0/30/21 would be the best dueling spec. For BG i'd go 0/32/19.

Also not liking the pure stam agi items you put in. I feel like agi is just a waste of ilvl for shaman. I didn't look them up but i think i would swap out your neck, wrist, gloves, waist, ring.

I'm still lvling my shaman but i'll try to test all the tricks. As i am curious about what works here and what in vanilla. Don't remember all that stuf

what would you put those 5 pts in resto in? healing focus?

i'd choose https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/shama ... 3010000000 which has 10% shock cost reduc but yeah the 70% healing reduction isn't bad either, but it feels too rng for me.

[flowison]

does it work if i go for max +int gear?
how does it affect my manaproblem / manapool and what are realistic numbers?

[Nothhelm]

I still prefer resto. skip stormstrike and get natures swiftness. That will make you better at 1v1 than this spec imo.

The shorter cooldown on shocks results in shocks ultimately doing much more damage (it's probably not inaccurate to think of it as a 20% damage boost), plus there's the 5% damage boost talent in elemental. The shorter cooldown is also great for how it lets you interrupt spells more aggressively. It's hard to predict just how great of a benefit it is to be able to interrupt spells more reliably. For example, if you manage to interrupt what would've been a 1000 damage spell, thanks to the shorter cooldown, or maybe if you prevent a crowd control that would've ruined you. Stormstrike is important too, since it's a combination of a melee strike, a chance to proc windfury, and a nature damage boost.

With an Enhancement-NS build you get either a forgettable ~650 damage attack, or an ~1700 heal every 3 minutes. I'd prefer this when fighting rogues, but that's about it. In 1v1 you win by killing your enemy, not by surviving until your friends kill them for you. You need the damage a Stormstrike-Elemental build gives you, otherwise your on-command damage potential is garbage and you'll spend the whole game praying for windfury to save you.

Also not liking the pure stam agi items you put in

I don't aim for agility, and my agility is quite low. I do aim for stamina, because it's insanely important for 1v1. There are many classes that can get you from 100% to 0% before you can really fight back, unless you stack stamina. This will become truer when AQ40 and Naxx come out.

but i think you have to be realistic in your item choice because some items will just never go to a shaman.

I was linking the gear I actually have. That somewhat contradicts the assertion that those items won't go to a shaman. It depends on your guild. Most of the gear isn't available on Nost yet, that's true. But that section of the guide still shows what I believe to be a good stat priority; one can tell what stats I prefer, and in what order, by comparing the ratios.

For talents; Elemental warding; i think this is most useful towards a mage, then again i don't see how a shaman has any problems vs mages. I would prefer some points in reduced mana cast. Enhance goes oom fast enough as it is. Its the same reason i would lean towards resto. For reduced mana cost and reduced interupt on heals (without having to be crit first). As an enhance shaman i don't see myself casting anything but healing spells when having the chance to be interupted. CL or LB only to finish runners but they can't interupt you if they are running. Also the 3% + hit is nice since not alot of gear we are going for has it.
I personaly like the imp reincarnation for BGs as it influence the game alot.
I think it comes down to chosing between a dueling/1v1 spec (Enh + ele) and a more BG oriented spec (Enh + resto).

Tier 3 mages are problematic when the player is good. But I can see how your view makes sense for the BWL era.

I don't feel like I go oom fast, but once again, we're coming from two different eras of gear.

Eye of the Storm is unexpectedly reliable. Here's an old video I made to show how good it can be https://youtu.be/r-yFY75YWEQ

For +hit it's important to get a hold of the +2 spellhit belt from BWL.

I agree with your final statement, which is why I'm Enhancement-Elemental. I rarely play in Battlegrounds, it feels like manufactured PvP, like fake PvP. It's hard to explain what I mean, but I just don't like it.