
Over my course of playing WoW, I have discovered that blogs tend to be some of the best sources of information that isn't always easy to find. The bloggers tend to go to lengths doing research and tests in order to educate and help readers maximize their potential. I'm not there yet, but someday hopefully.
One of the reasons that I wanted to start a blog about Enhancement Shamans is because as I leveled up this character, I often found it hard to find good information sites. Browsing forums can sometimes get you a good gem but it is frustrating fighting your way through the mire of trolls, flames, and inaccurate information.
It isn't much but here's a start. It is often difficult to compare marginally different pieces of equipment and decide which is better. When I used to play a hunter, I often used Cheeky's Spreadsheet because you just needed to stick equipment X into your profile and see if it increased your DPS. Shamans aren't as easy. I don't know the numbers game very well, I'm not a theorycrafter. However I suppose it is related to the abilities we have available to us, rotations, and all that good stuff. Whatever the reason, there isn't an easy spreadsheet out there. But do not fret, there are options. Instead of just going to one of your capital cities and beating on a training dummy, there is a useful simulator that I often use: EnhSim. This is a very nifty toy that you plug your info such as stats, spec, etc. (I will go there in a second) and it runs a combat simulation and spits out the important info, namely your DPS. You can customize it a lot, even changing boss stats such as resists, etc. in order to estimate how it will affect your DPS. When I first started using it, I found that the configuration could be a little confusing so here's a little step by step for the first time user. Note that this is with version 1.4.6. It may differ slightly for a newer version.
After unzipping, go into "config". The first thing I change is simulation_time, which I put to 10000. A longer simulation will improve the accuracy. There are some options to change in "Rotations and Misc" but I leave them as is. Next is your rotation, which you would put based on how you play. I use a simple five spell rotation:
SR (Shamanistic Rage)
MW5_LB (Lightning Bolt at 5 charges of Maelstrom Weapon)
SS (Stormstrike)
ES (Earth Shock)
LL (Lava Lash)
Based on your situation, I'm sure it will differ. I don't raid yet so I rely on Water Shield whereas a raider will probably be using Lightning Shield for maximum DPS since more mana sources are available. The same goes for Lightning Bolt. Unless it is going to hit multiple mobs, Chain Lightning is too expensive to always use. Prior to patch 3.0, my rotation would include Flame Shock then Earth Shock, but that is no longer the case. Enhancement now dips into Elemental instead of Restoration. The changes to caster stats have given Enhancement Shamans lots of spellpower and spell crit now too. Add in the damage bonus from Stormstrike and ES is much better DPS. But back on topic.
Next are boss stats that you can modify to analyze specific fights. Again I don't raid yet so I haven't done anything with that. Buffs too you can modify based on your common situation. For instance if you are a raider, you will probably enjoy most, if not all of those benefits. If you are a soloist, you can at least get totem and self buffs. Consumables too you can alter based on what you generally have running.
Now into stats. It is pretty self-explanatory. You just copy the stats off your character sheet. Just make a note of some things that may not be obvious if you aren't reading the notes. The hit you enter is the percent, given when you hover over hit rating. Same goes for haste rating, and armor penetration. Also expertise is the rating itself that you get from hovering over it. Here is the one spot however that I am unsure, spell bonus damage and mana regen. I would assume that when entering your stats that need to be unbuffed. Flametongue weapon and Water Shield will boost these stats and they are entered elsewhere. However I do not know if those entries account for these stats or are only there for their procs. If anyone knows one way or the other please let me know.
Next are some more entries: weapon imbues, enchants, weapon type (only matters for Orcs), trinkets, etc. etc. Enter what you have. If you don't have one (enchant or an unlisted trinket for instance), just make it a -. Finally plug in your spec. Yes it doesn't have all talents, namely resto, but those won't be affecting your DPS so that's moot.
Yay, we're all done. Save that up and then run start_simulation. That will run for a minute or so then print out a nice list of anything you wanna know.
I primarily use this to compare different items by plugging the stats wearing one versus the other. Yes it is tedious to reenter all the modified stats but it is the best that I have found to definitively show which piece is better. Still easier than calculating EP (Enhancement Points) also.
Now that that's all said in done, EnhSim does have limitations. The most glaring of which is that you need to be able to equip both pieces to really compare them. Therefore it doesn't help that much if you are contemplating whether or not to roll or spend your DKP on a new piece of equipment. I suppose it is possible if you are a number cruncher but I for one don't know things like how much crit you'll get from X agi. Even if you do, that seems like way too much of a pain. One other limitation is that some item entries do not have all possible options. You may not have the trinket or totem on the list for example. The last update however added several. Perhaps more will be in the future.
Despite those setbacks I think that it is a great tool. It isn't something you can really use to accurately predict your DPS, but it shows an ideal situation where you don't have to move, don't have to toss any heals, and are free from human error. Still, I think it's pretty cool and I have found it useful in comparing equipment. I've recently learned about an addon called Pawn which is supposed to help you make loot decisions based on point systems like Tank Points. I'll try to play with this and talk about it in the near future.