Shaman's in Wrath

I reciently recieved my own beta invite and began trying out my current main in the harsh lands of Northrend.  I decided to start in Howling Fjord, since its just plain amazing.  Everything about it.  I would have bought the beta if that was the only zone they designed.  After almost dying due to a current beta bug that makes health and mana(rage/energy/runes/runic power) not regen, I was off and questing.

I stuck with my current shaman's raiding spec, Enhancement, and adjusted for the new talents.  I did the majority of the quests in the starting town, and a good bit in the second major Alliance outpost.  I was finding it difficult to get five stacks of Malstrom Weapon up on any single mob.  The changes to shaman's attributes really messed up my gear, since most of it is [1]Leather and [2]Gemmed for Strength.  I lost about 6% crit, since it takes more agility for 1% crit, but gained about 400 attack power.  Even with crit affecting spell crit now, I didn't have enough to make Elemental Devistation proc reliably enough.

I found even with Black Temple and Hyjal gear, I was struggling with quests.  Since I had a good set of Elemental gear from Arenas, I decided to give it a shot before counting Shaman out.  I returned to Stormwind, respected to Elemental, and took the boat from the new Stormwind Harbor to Boren Tundra, the other starting zone.

Wow, what a differance respecing made.  Elemental is even better than it was in The Burning Crusade.  With about 1000 to nature spells, I was critting for 3800 to 4000.  Even better was the fact I never had to drink.  I did happen to have a Glyph that reduced my Lightning Bolt mana cost by 10%.  And Thunderstorm was just plain cool, and was still effective.  I quested for awhile, trying the build out.  Overall I'm pleased with Elemental.

Sorry Restoration fans, I didn't try it out.  While I have enough decient gear to try it, its not my cup of tea.  Also, its not as easy to test while questing.

I'm sure Enhancement will be fine.  Spirit Wolves is still not implemented and my gear didn't fit the changes well.  My only worry is that Enhancement feels bloated at its higher talents.  Elemental has no worry for now, except nerfs.