DPS chain questionnaire

Death Goddess has changed the healer questionnaire going round into a DPS one and even got some love from WoW.com. So here are my answers from an Enhancement Shaman point of view.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?
Kam, Shaman, Enhancement (16/55/0).

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Raids are my favoured environment although I run those 5 mans for the emblems as well.

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?
Tough one this, we have so many awesome spells like Stormstrike and Windfury and... hold on a damn minute... Bloodlust! it's just got to be BL. It's utterly iconic for the Shaman class, massively powerful and is just an amazing reason to group with a Shaman of any spec.

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?
Fire Nova Totem is pretty much useless in PvE for Enhancement. If the mobs haven't noticed it and killed it before the massive 5 seconds it takes to activate, then the rubbish AOE damage will merely lightly tickle them. It's a really good job it's going away in 3.3 for something more useful.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?
Some crazy buffing for fellow classes - Windfury and SOE totems make pure melee and tanks happy, Mana Stream totem is pretty damn handy for casters in the absence of Blessing of Wisdom, Flametongue totem is ok for spell casters. Fire, Ice and Nature resistance can be very handy, the fear breaking Tremor totem is valuable, Earth bind totem makes kiting zombies far more pleasant. Plus Unleashed Rage helps melee even more.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?
Apart from the wolves and Fire Elemental, the Enhancement spec doesn't have any "burst mode" different to "normal mode" DPS. By comparison the hunter class had a normal rotation which used mana at a reasonable rate and did good DPS (weaving auto shot and steady shot), but when needed, a high DPS rotation which chewed mana like a sod but did huge DPS (arcane shot, multi-shot and the rest). Enhancement is pretty much 100% damage all the time, which of course has other advantages. Damn I need a pop-able trinket!

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?
Having 25 man raided once (in Ulduar) I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer this :) In that situation it was definitely standing still behind the least mobile boss and kicking the s**t out of it, running around chasing stuff to DPS doesn't do much for our damage really. If some interrupts are required, I would claim that Wind Shear is an awesome interrupt - 6 second cooldown, not on the GCD, only costs mana which I have plenty of, small DPS penalty, so feel free to put me on interrupt duty on the boss!

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?
Pretty much every DPS class/spec provides useful buffs to an Enhancement Shaman, however I guess I prefer an Elemental Shaman for a DPS class. Totem of Wrath is a nice buff to spell damage, but with someone else on spell caster buffing duty, I can run Magma Totem and boost my own damage and AOE by a quite large amount. Plus having 8 totems out is just funny.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?
I enjoy playing with all classes, so this is a tough one to pick. If we go on buffs I get it would be Death Knights I guess, purely because I don't benefit from Horn of Winter, whereas most DPS class/spec will give me something (or free food/health pot). But I'm not massively concerned about getting buffed or not.

What is your worst habit as a dps?
Using Maelstrom Weapon 5 charges on self-heals, chain heals or healing other people. I should be trusting the healers to handle it, but I guess I enjoy the "hybrid" part of my class far too much to ignore a fellow player who is dangerously low on health.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?
DPS who don't watch their threat meters (Omen is required in our raids) and pull aggro. I feel that part of the skill is to do good DPS without killing yourself and everyone else standing near you.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?
At the 10 man level I play at, yes. I am highly competitive with other DPSers on the reports.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps?
World of Logs, those sort of combat log parsing for the DPS figures. Being alive at the end of the encounter and not taking any avoidable damage is what I look for to demonstrate my personal raid performance is good. Getting close to the simulated DPS figures in EnhSim shows I am doing the right keys at the right time. Finally if the encounter is beaten and I am doing comparable DPS to the others, I think I've done a good job there.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
That Enhancement Shaman are OP because we can do instant heals as well as DPS... really my heals are very ickle and small and I won't be worrying any healers any time soon. They certainly couldn't keep me alive while I was tanking anything!

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?
Gearing choices probably, as the RNG nature of the Enhancement Shaman makes it very difficult to pick which stat is the best. EnhSim, Pawn and Lootrank is my friend.

What dps class do you feel you understand least?
Mages as I don't have one, and have never played one at all. I understand some of them like tasty fire.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?
Totem Timers to keep track of those totems, ShockAndAwe to keep track of Maelstrom Weapon charges.

Agility over other stats or balanced stat allocation, and why?
First I'd recommend getting to the specials hit cap then the expertise cap. Then I would recommend simming your current setup and getting gear recommendations that way. Rawr is good as is EnhSim for this. Most melee stats are useful to me, in varying amounts depending on my gear level. Sometimes I'll end up upgrading a crit/haste item to a better one with arpen/hit or something like that, so my stats don't tend to be stacking any one thing. I think only my arpen is somewhat low compared to the other stats, and I'm fine with that as it seems a bit rubbish tbh.