Enhanacement is an iconic spec that used to be a competitive spec for many years. For last few years and expansions sadly it’s a shadow of it’s former self. In PvE it performs great and often outshines Ele in this aspect in PvP however damage isn’t always everything. Having huge damage potential is great but you also need to be able to deal it. Right now Enhancement is the easiest meele spec to kite. It has the weakest defence among meele specs and is the only meele spec without reliable CC.
The reason why it’s the case I believe is Enhancement’s WoD state. Back then the spec had insane damage, survivability and it was extremely easy to play. The main reason for it was passive healing/damage reduction Enhancement had. There were 2 gamebreaking glyphs:
- Glyph of Flame Shock - Flame Shock heals you for 45% of it’s damage dealt.
- Glyph of Lightning Shield - reducing damage taken by 10% whenever you have Lightning Shield on you.
Both glyphs were insane. 1st one if was insane in RBGs. If you spread Flame Shocks with Lava Lash you felt like you had personal healer with you. You could combine it with glyph that increased the range of Flame Shock spread and with one increasing range of Fire Nova and then you became one of the best RBG dps specs. You could literally compete with Affliction and Moonkins. 2nd one gave you passive mitigation that when mixed with 1 min. 30% wall available in stun - Shamanistic Rage and self healing made Enhancement almost unkillable unless chain stunned. To make it even worse Flame Shock in WoD also reset CDs of Storm Strike and Lava Lash. This way Enhancement became extremely broken.
Blizzard decided to rework Enhancement in Legion removing Flame Shock and turning all weapon imbues into active spells. They also removed SR and added Astral Shift that is 10% stronger but on 1,5 min. CD and cannot be used in stun. I’d call it a nerf however there was an artifact trait that made Astral Shift also heal Enhancement for 40% of max HP.
Since many people didn’t like the maelstrom in form of “blue rage”. Blizzard kept reworking Enha and in SL it got shaped into something between old and Legion Enha. It got Maelstrom Weapon back and mana but lost it’s slow because Frost Brand got removed so it affected it’s mobility. Enha also lost that 40% heal from Astral Shift what made it less tanky. Also in Legion Capacitor Totem stun used to last 5 sec. The common Enha comp then was WW/Enha/X or Turbo with Mistweaver. The common CC chain was Paralyze into Cap Stun. Unfortunately in BFA they nerfed the stun duration to 2 secs.
Right now Enhancement is a spec that offers exactly the same utility but it’s meele. Because of this limitation it ends up being way weaker and not worth picking over Ele ever. With DF talents it got provided with many tools that I believe don’t fit into it’s playstyle. Thunderstorm while it might help Enha kite meeles doesn’t help him with his mobility issues. Lasso - it has way lower value because you are usually in the middle of the fight and most of the times it will get kicked immidiately. Same for Hex - you are not very likely to hard cast Hex in the middle of the fight. I’ve seen few Enhancements playing precog even trying to juke but I don’t believe it’s really that strong.
What I think should happen. With all passive healing gone I believe iconic Shaman spell - Shamanistic Rage can comeback. Right now literally Ret has it in form Divine Protection. With SR back Enha would differentiate from Ele because it will have better defence against teams that kills him in stuns. They should also improve Enha CC. If it’s longer Cap Stun duration, instant Hex (would be pretty strong in the current game) or a new one. I’m not the one to decide but he definetely should get some. And to deal with him being kited I’d bring back MoP 4 set. Passive 50% slow from it’s autoattacks. Back then you had few weapon imbues - you either played WF/Flametongue or WF/Frostbrand. There was also a popular talent enhancing the bonus from Unleash Elements. It gave sprint on Frostbrand and extra damage on 2 Lightning Bolts with Flametongue. Since players didn’t want to lose damage and Blizzard listended they made Flametongue apply Frostbrand slow. Enha has few spells slowing the enemies but at the moment it’s not enough. Adding another mobility spell isn’t the move I think. Bringing back Frostbrand slow as passive will definetely improve Enhancement situation without affecting it’s PvE performance. I’d love to see Enha back but at the same time I don’t want to go too far and see WoD again.
Also I think that seeing a good synergy between Enha and another struggling spec - MW might be appreciated to bring both back.