Enhance shammy question

EJ said:
Hit Rating

Enhance Shaman do not require large amounts of Hit Rating on gear. Effectively, because we can get a large quantity of +Hit from talents (9%), our special attacks (windfury and stormstrike) are already hit capped. All the extra +Hit rating on your gear is going toward improving white damage only, which typically comprises between 45%-50% of your total damage. When you consider the itemization costs of hit rating compared to crit rating and AP, which directly impact 90% of a shaman's total damage, you can see why hit rating is given lower precedence. Take the talents to hit cap your specials, any hit rating on gear after that is icing on the cake.

A common misconception is that you "have to hit before you can crit." This is a fallacy and illustrates a misunderstanding of the attack table. (Note that this is in reference to white damage which uses a single roll system.)

A second misconception is that a miss is a "missed opportunity for a WF proc" and that more Hit Rating will generate more WF procs. This misconception is generated from the flawed assumption that all swings are possible WF procs. However only swings that are outside of the WF cooldown are eligible to proc WF. A good portion of your autoattack hits will never be capable of producing WF procs. A 5 minute fight with no flurry would see 115 white swings with a 2.6 speed weapon. A Shaman might look at that and think that 0.36 * 115 = 41 possible WF procs, but that is incorrect since each successful proc locks out 1-2 hits that follow, shrinking the pool of actual eligible hits. It is actually quite difficult to calculate the number of attacks that you *should* have producing WF in a given amount of time, and that is why we rely on simulators to generate the EP value of Hit Rating.

There is no magic value of +Hit that an Enhance Shaman needs. We need as much of every stat as we can get, but hit rating is just less important than the others. That does not mean that the goal is to have low hit rating either though. Rogues and Warriors require large amounts of +Hit to be effective because of their energy/rage feedback system and because they do not have talents that can hit cap their specials before considering hit on gear. Enhance shaman have no such feedback system and are able to hit cap specials through talents - therefore, hit rating above and beyond your talents is great to have, but is not a necessity.
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Source
 
Interesting. I think the shorter Reincarnation rocks for raiding, but I think the point in extending totem range may not be that useful as you'll be putting out totems that mostly buff the melee near you, with the exception of a healing totem. I would also rather put 5 points in reducing the cast time of Healing Wave - this will make you a little more useful to backup heal, rather than saving you a little mana when do backup heal. I also think that putting 14 points in elemental would give you more spell and melee dps (Concussion and Elemental Devastation) but then you don't have the improved Reinc and 3% hit rating etc.
 
t1ck3ts said:
yeah, for sure. but couldnt find any other mob in outlands where u can unleash ur rage at :P

+20 Strength is still used if u low on cash, and still need a little oomph never the less

although they claim there is no haste cap, i still found out that too much is not good in any case. the chance of throwing the wf proc on offhand is ugly.
anyways, ive tested the weapons, and thats whati found, maybe ill do some more extensive research on it. with graphs and stuff :D whats that mod called again .......:confused:
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I just grab a Healer and go whale on some big Elite. Banthar or one of those tards is pretty good.
The best way remains WWS parsing though.
I strongly disagree with you about the Haste as I've never had any issues. I was using Dragonstrike, DST, Haste Gloves, Haste Chest and chugging Haste pots and I only saw my DPS go through the roof.
You will always get offhand procs regardless of what u do and thats why u take a slow offhand.

Crusader is cheaper then +20 Str and considerably better.
 
Hmm, reasons for my build:

Tidal focus, mainly used for grinding, helps to top off myself/the tank who needs a small heal in a grp.

Imp GW, grinding tool

Totemic Matery, imo this will be helpful on mobile fights
 
WiT8litZ said:
This has been proven time and again to not be the truth. I will dig up the resources when I get some spare time.
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True only if you don't have 9% hit rating in talents, which I don't currently (I have 6%), and because of my Desolation set I'll use other talents.
 
Also with regards to Expertise. It's insanely good.
It reduces the chance to be dodged and parried which gives a big DPS increase.
 
virgo_ct said:
True only if you don't have 9% hit rating in talents, which I don't currently (I have 6%), and because of my Desolation set I'll use other talents.
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Fair enough but you wont be raiding further than Kara with the Desolation set and then you will need those talent points :-) And do note that all my opinions are from hardcore raiding perspective, so I dont think outside the raiding box in terms of stats, cuz, well what would you build stats up for? :D
 
This conversation has enlightened me, so I've decided to ditch my Desolation set for the two better (more crit, some MP5, no hit) items I already have. I respecced to get the 6% hit talents, but not the 3% from Resto, as my other gear has just over 3% hit rating. I've spent the 3 points in increasing totem range (I suspect OptionCardUser is right - useful for raiding), and the better Reinc cooldown (also useful for raiding). We'll see how it goes. I have a really decent collection of itemlevel 115 blues, which I think should be good enough to start Kara with. I find I regularly get close to the DPS of hunters/rogues/locks with several epic items in instances... and thats with backup healing and waiting for the tank to get aggro. Probably because they're noobs rather than me being imba, but it shows how combining stats, talents and play style properly (or not) can affect your dps output.
 
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If I were you I'd still take the 3% Hit from the Resto Talents.
For a Dual Wielding Class more Hit without gimping your other skills is very desirable.
 
Yeah, 9% +hit from talents is what makes shammies unique, and also goes a long way to pimping your dps by focusing less on +hit on your gear and more on stats and +crit (which has a better 'budget'). The other thing is the resto talent increases your SPELL hit as well, whereas focusing solely on physical +hit on your gear and the 6% from the enhance tree, does not. The implications are twofold:
-shocks are part of your dps cycle as well, and them being resisted less is significant to both your burst capability and sustained damage.
-as an enhance shaman you will be expected to interrupt heals and other mob/boss caster abilities often with Earthshock, or kite mobs occasionally (eg Vashj) with Frostshock. Being fail at this role will get you the thumbsdown.

tl;dr : take the talent.
 
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I absolutely agree, and good points. But I'll stay with this build until I replace my hit rating gear (I didn't focus on getting hit rating on it, it just happened to have it :-).
 
Out of curiosity, what spec are you if not the cookiecutter resto 0/47/14 spec?

I hear 'suicide spec' (elemental devastation) aint half bad either.
 
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