Shamans in 5v5 arena, an in depth look

So, Aloran my mate has asked me to write my opinion about Enhancement shamans in arena, now i could make this article REALLY short and just say "Spec elemental you crybaby", instead i wanna try and go into detail the pros and cons, not only about an enh shaman but also resto and ele oh ye, ill only focus on 5v5, or else this will get WAY too long. One thing before i start, as a shaman you will 99% of the time be main target to die or to be CCed, easy as that.


First something that is equal to all shamans in what they bring to an arena team:

Bloodlust, 35% extra attack and cast speed, should be pretty clear in itself how friggin awesome this is, spam mana burning, spam healing, spam dps, etc etc, simply helps you get stuff done faster, doesnt need alot of explaining.

Totems, grounding, earthbind, poison cleansing, and almost most importantly, winfury totem. Grounding can with good timing save you from a CSed paladin, that hurtfull deathcoil or sheep, yea its 5v5 and alot of spells and being thrown around, still grounding aint to be underestimated. Earthbind, quiet clear what this does, snares the entire enemy team(if well placed). Poison cleansing, dispelling Wound poison, viper sting, crippling poison and even blind, remove a crucial blind or viper sting and generally having a poison remover is obviously a huge asset.

Healing, pretty much a no brainer shamans can heal, of course how good depends on the spec, not much explanation needed here.

Shocks/purge, r1 earth shocking enemy healers and purging buffs off the main target, if the shaman aint dpsing or healing, he should be purging the enemy big time, removing a mages Molten armor or mage armor can be quiet annoying seeing as theyre more fragile towards a warrior or rogue. Purging all buffs off priests are devastating, they rely on their buffs to keep them alive under focus fire, Inner fire, renew, PoM, and shield, remove all this and theyre fodder for a warrior.


So! Enhancement:
Pros:
Fucking, sick, crazy, uncontrollable, burst dps. Yea, thats right, given the timing and luck no class in the entire game can burst dps like an Enhancement shaman with a big fat 2 hander. The last time i dueled Aloran with his Deep thunder, he procced winfury(yea i call it that) on me, and did 2 HITS for 1500 and a normal one for about 750 something, thats 3750 dmg non crit, probably the first time ever i nearly shat myself playing a videogame, this was followed up by a stormstrike and an Earth shock, suddenly i saw my 10k hp ass on 50%, needless to say i paniced and lost the duel, me being the great loser i immideately started to whine about how lame winfury is, and that he only won because of the stun procced on his Deep thunder, but anyway. Just goes to show how fucking sick their damage can be, its always been like this and most likely always will be, unmatchable, uncontrollable, sick, high burst dps.

Now why is this good? Personally i see it best in a 2345 team, seeing normally they cant just charge a random person and kill them instantly, they wear down the enemy slowly looking for an opening to burst down someone, an enh shaman adds greatly to this, seeing as he VERY easy can create openings with a few winfury procs(stick him on a clothie and sooner of later that guy will be below 50%)

Cons:
The key word, uncontrollable if youre unlucky you can be running around for 20 seconds without getting one single winfury proc, that is completely shit and makes you wanna cry and whine at your shaman "why are you so gay?". Uncontrollable = bad, enh shamans cant follow orders like other classes if the leader says "burst priest!" all he can do is walk up and poke the priest a bit hoping for the best, its almost worse dps than me wanding!

Next is the limited healing abilities a shaman geared for melee has, low +healing and a low mana pool compared to the other specs limits the off healing they can do, this also adds to their relatively weak survivability, most enh shamans have NS for an instant heal to help them out but thats about it. Also an enh shaman focused by more than one melee needs to pick out his shield or hes gonna get buttfucked big time, this removes alot of their dps potential.

And in the end, an enh shamans complete lack of abilities to close distance, no intercept, CloS, vanish or sprint makes them extremely vulnerable to CC, yea frost shock, but the chance that you arent playing with either a mage or warriors is VERY low, so the main target will be slowed anyway.

Thats about all i can think off for enh shamans.

Elemental:
Pros:
The more controlled, less sick dps spec of the shaman, ele shamans are without a doubt the most popular spec for arenas, their dps is high AND controllable, you ask for it and they bring you 3k+ burst in a few seconds, ele shamans can. An ele shaman have potential burst very close to that of an enh shaman, Overload procs can be friggin nasty to have send at you. Not much to say about ele shamans dps, its a very high sustainable dps they output and a good asset to the team, cant say much else hehe.

Target Switching, unlike an enh shaman, ele shamans dont need to close distance, they switch targets instantly and start their imba dpsing, this is huge for any kind of setup, fast on-demand burst is so damn powerfull, anyway im repeating myself.

Cons:
Runs oom very very fast, limited healing compared to resto, and like enh shamans lose alot of their dps when getting focused, and focused they most likely will be. Cant really find any huge cons looking at an ele shaman apart from that, when comparing it to the other specs.

Restoration
Pros:
Resto shamans, have absolutely no dps whatsoever, however are very very powerfull at healing, earth shield is an extremely powerfull spell. Natures guardian with mail armor, earth shield and NS makes a resto shaman a very hard class to kill fast. Chain heal is also a strong group heal for when 1 target isnt being focused big time.

Cons: No defensive magic dispell, combined with no offensive CC, this is a pretty bad thing seeing as healers espeically are required to have a defensive magic dispell, removing CC and other magic effects.


This is about all i can think of at the moment, i might add some things later if i think of more, not very likely though :P
Oh yea, if you liked reading this, i wouldn't mind writing some for other classes, just wanna be sure someone actually wants to read it :)

-Artanias