Say Hello To My Little Friends
Posted by 
Juggynaut on Monday, December 22, 2008 - 19 Comments Tags: Enhancement, Raid, Shaman, bash, cooldown, elites, feral spirit, ghost wolf, group, instance, leveling, maelstrom weapon, solo, spirit hunt, spirit walk, spirit wolves, totems, twin howl
Juggynaut on Monday, December 22, 2008 - 19 Comments Tags: Enhancement, Raid, Shaman, bash, cooldown, elites, feral spirit, ghost wolf, group, instance, leveling, maelstrom weapon, solo, spirit hunt, spirit walk, spirit wolves, totems, twin howl 
I'm currently specced enhancement, which is my spec of choice for the time being. It's also the one I tend to recommend to shaman who are leveling up. Of course, both Elemental and Restoration have come a long way in their viability as leveling specs, but an enhancment shaman is able to solo with very, very little downtime, PvP decently, bring utility along with great DPS in groups, take on elites without breaking a sweat, heck I even tanked the ranged horsemen in 10 Man Naxx. Knowing the abilities that are at your disposal will help you make fights go much smoother. One of the key abilities available to enhancement shaman is Feral Spirit, the 51-point enhancement talent introduced in the Echoes of Doom patch. I said I would address my love for this tandem of wolves and you might have wondered what they do besides look cool and make lots of noise. I'll tell you right now - they are a versatile little cooldown that I've used in a myriad of situations.
While leveling through Northrend, I used my wolves to solo most of the group quests that I encountered. My basic strategy when approaching an Elite was to start out with totems that would increase my damage output. That means Strength of Earth, Windfury, Flametongue, and Mana Spring. If I knew the enemy was a caster, I'd drop a Grounding Totem and wait for the cooldown to be up before heading in. Once set, I'd run in, let the dogs out, take some damage, heal with a 5 stack of Maelstrom Weapon when I got low on health, use my wolves' Twin Howl when I got too low on health to let them soak up a little damage, grab aggro again, and repeat. Usually by the time my wolves despawned, I was able to kill the enemy. If things got too dire, I'd use Shamanistic Rage or even Heroism, but most of the time I wouldn't need to go to those lengths.
Now, while the additional DPS from the twins doesn't hurt, the real key to these guys is one of their abilities: Spirit Hunt. Spirit Hunt heals the wolves along with the Shaman, for 150% of the damage they cause, which ends up being a very nice HoT on both me and the wolves. This means that when I'm ping-ponging aggro on an elite by using their taunt, I generally don't need to heal myself during the time that they are being targeted and they don't need healing unless they're taking a severe beating. It also gives your healers a break during heavy raid damage and can give you a nice buffer in PvP so long as your wolves can stay on an enemy.
Another useful ability that the Spirit Wolves have available is Bash, which is a stun. This is the only true stun that shaman have access to. It's amazing for PvE since it can give you an extra breath between damage, and in PvP, well, you can't do that while stunned. If you're a Shaman who's done any real PvPing, you know how much it sucks to be stunned, so start using it against all of those rogues and pallies. Unfortunately, the wolves will cast this as soon as they start attacking something, and although autocast can be turned off manually once the pets are out, it will turn back on the next time they are summoned. I've looked and tried hunter macros that turn off autocast, but they are not effective on the spirit wolves. Blizzard is aware of the issue and hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Spirit Walk is the last of the wolves' abilities that I'll cover. It is a Sprint-like ability that increases your run speed and your wolves' run speed by 60%. It also clears any root effects on all three of you. Incoming AoE spell? Stuck in a Frost Nova? Getting kited? Running a flag? Trying to catch a flag carrier? For an enhancement shaman, if you aren't in melee range, you're missing out on a lot of your potential damage. Sure you can Lava Burst for a decent crit on top of a Flame Shock, but that's not how you get your damage done. Movement is critical especially in PvP. Spirit Walk will get you there faster than Ghost Wolf, frees you from roots, and even works indoors! (Insert Plea for Ghost Wolf Indoors, maybe a glyph? Please!). If used early enough in the wolves' 45 second duration, it can be used twice per summon. I often use it while running back in an instance if I know it is going to be a long one.
Now, if only they were permanent and not just 45 seconds every 3 minutes...
Reader Comments (19)
first, these wolves sound handy
Go Project Lore!
Oh And BTW.... 1st Post
yeww
love this show
To the person who double-posted: You are FTL. Clean up your username and language.
Back to the blog entry... My main used to be enhancement before my guild started asking me a lot to do heals. It's definitely the best spec for leveling and has quite a good dps. When patch 3.0.2 came out, I disliked the Feral Spirits talent. But as time went on, I actually saw just how useful they could be if managed right. Now I like calling them out whenever I'd solo an elite or the group healer needed a break.
My main is a shaman (48lvl lol) and enh is my thing for now, but when I reach 80 I'll prbably switch to resto
I LOVE my wolves! Ive been using them to solo elites alot lately, like I just finished the quest in zul'drak that you had to kill that elite outside of the plague place, and instead of controlling my own elite to take him down, I solo'd it and was left with a good ammount of HP afterwards! Spirit Wolves FTW! (And yeah, I wanna start a pettition on the whole ghost wolf "only outside" thing, In a glyph or regular, I dont care!)
Just like to throw my 2 cents in, since I too have an 80 shaman.
I leveled through NR enhancement too. I was easily able to solo all of the group quests w/ the wolves, even the final group of 3 person quests in Zul' Drak. At 80, however, I specced resto because
1. Enhancement dps is mediocre right now. Not the worst in raids, but not the best.
2. Elemental dps... is that a joke?
3. Resto right now is doing fine, Iv been able to heal 5 man heroics just fine, even without great gear, and am approaching gearing for Naxx quickly because EVERYONE always needs a healer.
You can check me out on WoW armory, the Character's name is Sale, on Antonidas PvE US server.
If shammie get permanent wolf, then Frost mage better get permanent Water elemental.
yea i'm gonna miss my spirit wolves when i switch back to resto
Lvl 80 enhance shammy here :D
I spam my wolves when ever I can, they can really come in handy in ex. CoT: Culling of Stratholme,on Hc mode, those two spirit walks u can get every third min is really nice :)
To Will, who said enhancement is medicore - That really depends on gear, and if u know how to play !, we can easily get in the top dmg, and in the lower half. So all depend.
Sharmaax
Burning Steppes EU
If the Shaman should have permanent wolfs, then Warlocks should be able to summon more than 1 minion at a time.
Maybe they could fit that in, under demonology for one of the next patches =)
Good topic Juggy. I recently rolled a Draenei shammy alt just for the spirit wolves (ok and maybe also 'cause Heroism looks fun on your vids). I'm thinking of eventually making his second spec resto to try out chain heal when the dual specs come out. Any suggested professions to pair up with these two specs in mind? (I was leaning towards alchemy/herb)
Herâlð (yes that's a "d")
NElf Rogue of Flames of the Fallen
Blood Furnace US
I've never been one of the guys who'd spec smthing then switch at level 80 or anthing. Im currently level 65 and a prot warrior i leveled prot my whole life and mind you i didn't have any help questing, it was just me! Although my friends do play on my sever so if i wanted a group for any instance it was pretty easy for us to put one together. As for the whole sham thing that were discussing i do i have a shammy alt (lvl28) and he currently is specced element so id have to switch over and check out whats so cool about enhancement.
Deidare
Prot warrior (Tankz, and your welcome)
Turalyon normal sever
horde / undead
"Of course, both Elemental and Restoration have come a long way in their viability as leveling specs"
LIES! Say no to resto for leveling. Your sanity depends on it
i love when people say first when they arent first
first
im 17th woot
I love being enhancement it's definetly the best spec on the best class on the whole game. I would forever stay as enhancement staying at the top of the dps list but somebody has got to keep the group alive.
Do any1 have good tips how an enhancement Shaman could PvP ?
Even with over 300 resilience, it seems pretty impossible to beat a mage, or an affliction warlock.
Also, a paladin would easy pwn me..
I heard that Enhancement and Elemental Shamans will get a boost next patch for PvP.
Arexor 80 Shaman, Dunemaul EU.