I wanted to see what the hype is about so I levelled a shaman to 80 and… why is lightningbolt/tempest the top damaging ability in ST ? Shouldn’t it be like windfury or Stormstrikes ? Just feel so… aesthetically displeasing.
4 Likes
Because enhance is currently a spellblade.
If you change to totemist, then your top ability after the surging totem is WF/lb/SS.
Enh shaman was always kind of a battlemage, and the stormbringer tree plays on that. Totemist is the more traditional one where other abilities take the spotlight.
Doesn’t Totemic play the elementalist build tho ?
Both builds play the “storm” variant. The elementalist build you mention is the one that is built around hot hands and lava lash interactions (the right side of the spec tree).
Now both builds are playing the storm variant, where they are using mainly stormstrike as the main builder/ability.
The difference is that stormbringer has way more power on the spenders (tempest, lb, and ele blast), while totemist uses lb/cl mainly as a way to reset the cd of SS, stack up the totem damage, and keep the buff of frost witch.
Thanks for a great explanation 
Was thinking about that as well.
Appreciated
1 Like
Feeling you.
Its stupid that a melee spec top dmgs are ranged spells. Miss legion and bfa.
1 Like
I mean spenders are fine being the top source of DPS. If builders where higher in overall damage, you could just scrap the maelstrom builder-spender system. Since spenders would be obsolete.
Totemic is a different story. It puts the shaman into the support role for a totem 
1 Like
It does feel kinda weird. Enhancement Shamans have been battlemages since their inception (especially since TBC when Maelstrom was introduced), but currently they do feel way more “mage” than “battle”.
White damage, Windfury, Flametounge, Storm Strike, Lava Lash, Crash Lightning (and potentially Ice Strike)… soo many melee-abilities, soo little damage…
With that said, I do enjoy playing my enhancement dwarf, so I’m not complaining.