Enhancement Shaman Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.0.5)

Welcome to our Leveling Guide for The War Within. This will help you in your journey to max level as an Enhancement Shaman, covering talents and abilities you should know about.

Enhancement Shaman is very flexible when leveling, being suited to questing due to its extremely high mobility or doing large pulls and using its healing tools to stay alive. With big cooldowns such as Bloodlust and Earth Elemental, it also has no problem dealing with particularly dangerous elites so long as it is infrequent. It also does well in dungeons, but you may find your queues go faster if you do so as Restoration to heal instead.

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. You will often be replacing these gear pieces very quickly, so just equip whatever comes to you without worrying about secondary stats.

During levels 1 to 9, you will have very few abilities to fight with, notably Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock and Primal Strike. This will change at level 10 when you can select Enhancement as your specialization and begin to unlock additional abilities in the talent tree. You will additionally start with Lightning Shield.

To help with understanding what changes as you level up and progress through the talent tree, use the slider below to select your current level. Each time you level up, move it along, and the rotation will adjust for you!

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

After reaching level 71 and unlocking Hero Talents, we recommend playing with Stormbringer to gain access to Tempest.

Due to Enhancement only being unlocked as a talent specialization at Level 10, you should use the abilities provided to you in the intro quests until you are presented with the option.

A core part of the Enhancement toolkit are weapon imbues. Make sure to have Flametongue Weapon applied at all times.

A core part of the Enhancement toolkit are weapon imbues. Make sure to have Flametongue Weapon and Windfury Weapon applied at all times. These spells will naturally cast onto the appropriate weapon in your main and off-hand.

Keep yourself buffed with Skyfury for the additional Mastery and auto-attack procs.

Make sure to keep Lightning Shield active at all times for the extra Maelstrom Weapon and damage when being struck.

Make sure to keep Lightning Shield active at all times for the extra Maelstrom Weapon and damage when being struck. Also, thanks to Elemental Orbit, you can keep Earth Shield active at the same time for additional healing.

Use Bloodlust whenever you are up against dangerous enemies, or have pulled a large pack and need to burst it down quickly.

1. Cast Tempest whenever it has procced with 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
2. Cast Flame Shock when engaging enemies.
3. Cast Feral Spirit on cooldown.
4. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance.
5. Cast Ascendance when facing dangerous enemies.
6. Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown. Aim to hit a target not affected by Flame Shock.
7. Cast Lightning Bolt with both 5+ stacks of Maelstrom Weapon and the Primordial Wave buff.
8. Cast Chain Lightning with Arc Discharge active.
9. Cast Doom Winds on cooldown, ideally against elites and large groups of enemies.
10. Cast Lightning Bolt if at 5+ stacks of Maelstrom Weapon. If multiple targets are present, instead cast Chain Lightning.
11. Cast Lava Burst if at 5+ stacks of Maelstrom Weapon. If multiple targets are present, instead cast Chain Lightning.
12. Cast Primal Strike.
13. Cast Crash Lightning if multiple enemies are present.
14. Cast Stormstrike.
15. Cast Frost Shock if buffed by Ice Strike or Hailstorm.
16. Cast Sundering, ideally against multiple enemies.
17. Cast Lava Lash.
18. Cast Ice Strike.
19. Cast Frost Shock.
20. Cast Lightning Bolt if at 5+ stacks of Maelstrom Weapon, Lava Burst is on cooldown and nothing else is available.

Enhancement also has a robust toolkit for surviving different situations through a variety of spells and effects:

• Most importantly, we can use our Maelstrom Weapon stacks to make Healing Surge instant, so if you are ever in danger, this can save you in a pinch.
• Most importantly, we can use our Maelstrom Weapon stacks to make Healing Surge both instant and more potent thanks to Improved Maelstrom Weapon. If you are ever in danger, this is our tool of choice for recovering.
• Earth Elemental is your own personal pocket tank you can get out for emergencies and will taunt nearby enemies, giving you time to catch up. This lasts for a full minute, making it great for dangerous elites.
• Ancestral Guidance converts a portion of our damage into additional healing at no cost, making it excellent for keeping up pressure in big pulls.
• Nature's Guardian procs a free heal whenever you drop below 35% health, keeping you more stable for longer. This has a 45-second cooldown, though, so if it has procced, be careful.
• Earth Shield also gives us passive healing so long as it is maintained and even boosts self-healing casts while active. The Maelstrom Weapon gained from having Lightning Shield active is generally more useful.
• Earth Shield also gives us passive healing so long as it is maintained and even boosts self-healing casts while active.
• Reincarnation lets us get straight back up if you ever die but has a lengthy 30-minute cooldown. If you ever go a bit overboard, use this to get back right to where you started without needing to run back. Just be careful - you spawn with low Health, so if there are still enemies nearby, it might be worth walking instead.

If you are willing to take the risk and utilize War Mode, the following PvP talents are recommended during leveling or for other open-world content. There may be times when you would like to use other options and are encouraged to experiment! PvP talents can be freely changed at any time.

Your first PvP talent slot will unlock at Level 20, your second at Level 30, and the final at Level 40.

• Level 20: Ride the Lightning adds additional damage to your Stormstrike casts, helping you to dispatch groups of enemies quicker, so is the universal pick
• Level 30: Counterstrike Totem lets you pull aggressively and deal the damage back to enemies, using your own Health as a resource! Alternatively, Burrow is an option as well as an escape tool if you get caught in a bad position or for some opening burst.
• Level 40: Stormweaver provides free healing whenever you spend Maelstrom Weapon for damage freeing up some resources in exchange for sustain. This is not always comfortable to use, but is a solid option until we reach level 48 and can switch to Shamanism.
• Level 40: Shamanism unlocks when we gain Bloodlust at 48, and reduces its cooldown to a mere minute, giving us a much more frequent burst window.

Congratulations on reaching level 80! Now that you have reached the end game, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.