Enhancement Shaman

[Protico]

Lest the hunters overrun this DPS forum here is some crap for Enhancement Shaman.

Elitist Jerks Shaman Forum (http://elitistjerks.com/f79/)
This should be a bookmarked page for you. Hell, it should be your homepage. This is where people who know what they are talking about go to discuss strategy, mechanics and upcoming changes to the shaman class. Read what is being said, follow the advice given and you will become a better player.

EJ Enhancement TTT (http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20765-shaman_enhancement/)
This is the compendium of all relevant information with regards to playing the enhancement class. Read it, memorize it. Hit caps, expertise, talent values, coefficients, it is all on that page. It also has links to resources which might be useful.

EnhSim (http://code.google.com/p/enhsim/downloads/list) - [EJ Thread] (http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t31667-enhsim_dps_simulator/)
If you do not have EnhSim as an enhancement shaman, you are doing it wrong. The sim provides a framework for determining what stats have the most value for you based on your current gear, as well as what glyphs and rotation provide the greatest DPS. You should use the Sim to create new equivalency points [EP] each time you change spec or upgrade loot or regem or go to the barbershop.

LootRank.com (http://www.lootrank.com/wow/wr.asp?Cla=64&Str=1.1&mh=1.21&dps=5.93&mcr=1.34&odps=2.07&spd=.99&Agi=1.72&mhit=1.56&Int=1.53&map=1&arp=1.12&Ver=6&j1=0&j2=0&k1=0&k3=0&k5=0&k6=0&t1=40521&t2=44664&t3=40524&t5=39724&t8=40260&t9=40522&t10=40746&t6=39702&t7=39727&t11=39277&t12=40256&t4=40721&t14=40383&t15=40189&t16=33507)
Once you have the Sim working, you can enter your stat weights in LootRank and it will show you a list of all available gear and it's relative value for you. This is invaluable since our stats fluctuate so much from one upgrade to the next, just remember to reenter new stats each time you run the sim. The provided link shows loot ranking based on my current EP.

Addons:
ShockAndAwe [Curse] (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/shockandawe.aspx)
It is a great learning tool, it is also useful for tracking Maelstrom Weapon cooldowns. You can disable a lot of the irrelevant stuff (swing timer bar) and just use the stuff that matters (priority frame).

Ratings and Caps
Expertise: 214 rating, 26 value.
Expertise is the most important stat until it hits the cap, once capped it is completely worthless. Get as close to 214 as you can without going under.

Hit: 341 rating (420 without 3% spell hit debuff).
Hit is the second most valuable stat until the spell hit cap (listed) is reached. Once the spell cap is reached hit is still a valuable stat (not usually most valuable) until the hard cap is hit, which won't happen.

[Protico]

There are a ton of changes coming up in 3.1. Some of the more important ones I will list.

* Unleashed Rage - Now 3 point talent (down from 5) which also grants 3/6/9 expertise to the shaman. This is innate expertise, meaning that you don't have to have the UR buff in order to get the benefit. This will bring our expertise cap down to 140 rating, which is a very good thing.
* Flurry - Brought down to 25% haste fully talented, this brings us in line with all other melee classes. This is roughly balanced by the UR changes, we will have a net gain of haste though, do to the next item.
* Haste - Haste rating will grant 30% more haste. Haste will become a viable stat in 3.1, passing AP at a much lower point. The new rankings will most likely be: expertise to cap > hit to spell cap > haste > AP. Still use the sim to find out.
* Spirit Weapons - They changed the threat reduction from melee only to all attacks, this is a very good thing as we were riding right behind the tanks on many fights. We are going from one of the highest TPS/DPS classes to the same level as other melee (fury warriors).
* Heroism - Now a 5 min CD with 10 min debuff, this will prevent any multi-heroism fights but will also make it less painful to wipe repeatedly on a fight with only one shaman.

All in all the changes are very good for enhancement, we should net a small DPS increase and a lot of slack in the threat department, also we should see more versatility in our gem options since 7-9 of them wont be locked into expertise.

Currently Blizzard doesn't want to itemize for us though, so that is pretty much a bummer.

[Protico]

Just a quick comparison for people who go OOM during combat. They are ranked by MP5/talent point.

1. Shamanistic Rage: 500 mp5, 1 talent point.
2. Shamanistic Focus: 296.6 mp5, 1 talent point.
3. Improved Stormstrike: 550 mp5, 2 talent points (275mp5/talent point).
4. Elemetal Focus: ~170mp5, 1 talent point.
5. Convection: 88mp5, 1 talent point.

Don't get convection ever. A note about Elemental Focus, it depends on your crit rate, the higher your crit the more mp5 you will see from it. It will always be lower than the three above it, so using a point there is a desperate act of an enhancement shaman with bad gear and even worse group comp.