Enhancement Shamans' Who am I?

No, this isn't a reference to Jackie Chan's greatest movie of all time.

And I only briefly talked about it before here.

But before I talk about what choices you can make to perform better, we've got to understand who we are.

Enhancement Shaman are the most hybridy hybrids in the game.  Many people say it and don't understand why, and it isn't quite clear until you a) compare it to other hybrid classes and specs and b) start gearing up and you have to make tough choices.  

The pures:  Mages, Rogues, Hunters, Warlocks

All of these classes can only spec to do one thing: bring the pain train.  The specs have totally different playstyles, strengths and weaknesses but none of these classes can really tank or heal in any sort of sustainable way.  Unless you are this dood or this dood.

The hybrids: Warriors, Paladins, Death Knights, Druids, Priests, Shaman

Hybrids can fulfill more than one role.  When I talk about roles I talk about the holy trinity: tank, heals, and dps.

Warriors can tank and dps. Paladins can tank, heal, and retlol.  Death Knights can tank, dps, and do things that no class ought to be able to do.  Druids can tank, heal and dps in TWO different specs. They unfortunately can't be tamed by hunters yet, but enough QQ ought to get Blizz to change their minds.  Priests can heal, dps, and discipline other people (I just have no concept or understanding of that spec).  We shamans, like druids also have two dps specs and a healing spec.   

This makes us a hybrid class.

But what makes the enhancement shaman the most hybrid SPEC among all the specs available to these classes?  Aren't we just a dps spec like any other hybrid's?  Well, no.  The way we do dps is drastically different than other specs, or rather the sources of our damage while we dps is drastically different.  As enhancement shaman our dps comes in the form of hard hitting weapon-imbued dual-wielding weapons in ADDITION to shocks and maelstrom weapon stacked lightning bolts.  We are doing melee physical damage with a huge chunk of our total damage being done by casts and spells.  No other class really behaves in this way.  Hunters have pet damage but so do warlocks.  All those clothies and boomkins dps through their spell casts and if you see a mage daggering bosses, then I'm not sure you want to group with that mage too often.  Rogue poisons technically count as spell damage but all they do is apply it to their weapons.  Retlols and DK's do a significant portion of damage through judgements, consecrate, diseases, and so on, but none of them benefit as much from these spell stats as much as enhancement shaman.  And our spell damage makes up a bigger portion of our total damage than theirs.  So have I convinced you that we are the most hybrid spec of them all?  

The implications are really important for you and needs to factor in to your decision making.  Fish Feasts are the best raid food we can get because of hybrid nature.  There isn't a dps buff under the sun that we don't benefit from.  Boomkin spell crit boost?  Take it.  Elemental shaman totem? Yes, please.  Arcane Brilliance?  Thanks!  Oh yeah, I'll also take those battle shouts, leader of the pack buffs, armor debuffs, and all those buffs I bring myself.  Thank you, thank you, and thank you.  

Your gear choices are also affected.  Don't listen to those conservatives.  Those who say strength is what we should stack, those who say intellect does nothing for us.  They are hate-mongerers and loath to see you succeed!  We are mail wearers and we wants them!  Hunters, back off!  I'm giving a /roll 10000.  

This hybridness makes my gears clink and the brain go choo choo because it makes gearing choices a heck of a lot more interesting.  What we give up in agility we may gain so much more in intellect.  Attack power is a beastly stat for us but sometimes all that int is too much to turn down.  Can you imagine wearing one of these?  I really don't want to but an upgrade is an upgrade.

Next post we'll look at another answer to the question of Enhancement Shamans' Who Am I?