Wrath of the Melee DPS Buffers

So, as you might have heard, WoW is getting it’s second expansion in the 4th Quarter this year. And our favorite spec is looking to be very, very positive I think going into it. Let’s review a bit of what we know so far. This won’t be an exaustive review, so check out sites like WoWInsider or MMO-Champion for more info.

First, a few facts we know: ENH Shaman are being fundamentally realigned into real melee/DPS casters. As mentioned previously, talented, STR, AGL and INT will all provide AP for ENH Shaman. Where as previously, Shaman would sub-spec into Resto for the Hit gained by Nature’s Guidence, the “Cookie Cutter” builds will be going into Elemental for a new talent that will give us big hits with our new Lava Burst spell.

Though it’s always subject to change, the most recent Talent Tree builds can be played with here from MMO-Champions. Let’s review a few of our new toys:

Ancestral Knowlege/Mental Dexterity: This is one of our best new toys. All that Mail armor we pass up because it has hunter stats will be good for us now-  With the class naturally getting AP from STR and AGL (rather then 2xSTR), we also now will get it from INT. That’s a hell of an investment for 8 talent points.  Note that some currently-well geared people might notice a small DPS drop, with STR-focused leather.

Improved Shields – Not just Lightning Shield anymore, you can get some more mana from Water Shield now. As well, it synergies with Static Shock later.

Improved Windfury Totem – More Haste for your WF Totem. Just to be clear, rather then extra hits, WF Totem will give raid-wide Haste bonuses (which will effect both Melee and Spell).

Improved Stormstrike – More charges, shorter cooldown. Ain’t noth’n wrong with that.

Spectoral Transformation – WHen we shift into Ghost Wolf, movement impairing effects have a 50% chance to be shrugged off, and it adds the same to to Spirit Wolves (We’ll get to that).

Maelstrom Weapon – Crit with a weapon 5 times, get 20% reduction in cast time. Ooh nice. Will also synergize well with Elemental Devestation.

Feral Spirit – Two pet-bar controlled Wolves join you on your call, for 45 seconds on a 3 minute cooldown. Note, this hasn’t been implimented yet, so there hasn’t been extensive testing on how they’ll attack. We’ll hope to get that soon.

This is my talent build. Tell me what you think, and we’ll go over it.

I’m excited for wrath. I think we’re going to see a lot of growth and as a class, we’re going to be putting up some big numbers.