Ruby Sanctum: Enhancement Shaman Gear

We’re gotten some e-mail — and quite a few people searching — about Patch 3.3.5’s new raid instance, Ruby Sanctum, and gear of interest to Enhancement Shaman players.

The good news? There’s a sweet ring, the Signet of Twilight, that features AP, Crit, Hit, a ton of Agility and a yellow gem slot.

The bad news? That’s about all we know for right now. Although bits and pieces of the loot table (mostly for the 25-man version), have been pieced together by the pro data-miners over at MMO-Champion, the majority of loot drops are still a mystery. With news that Ruby Sanctum itself will be delayed (it won’t open immediately when Patch 3.3.5 drops), it’s possible we won’t have a complete picture of Halion’s loot tables for some time.

As a consolation prize, check out this Halion video from the PTR — and fair warning, like most other guild vids it’s heavy on the Eurotechno, so get ready to hit the mute button:

PTR Patch Notes: The Flurry Nerf

According to the latest PTR patch notes, Flurry will be nerfed:

Flurry: Now provides 5/10/15/20/25% haste instead of 10/15/20/25/30%.

At first glance this seems unnecessary. It still takes a lot of work to top the meters as Enhancement, and unlike some other classes,  you can’t show up to a raid with a few blues and a rotation macro and expect to be competitive. Enhancement players at the top of their game are meticulous about the Maelstrom Weapon priority system and achieve their damage output by carefully balancing stats.

After two consecutive nerfs to Windfury Glyph, the Flurry change seems like an extra kick while we’re down. But all is not lost.

With the changes to Unleashed Rage — which will provide a total of 9% Expertise fully-talented — we’re getting two extra talent points to move into DPS-boosters like Call of Flame and Improved Shields, and the equivalent of four or five gem slot’s worth of Expertise. Additionally, Shamans will get 30% more benefit from Haste, along with the other hybrid melee classes.

All in all, it’s not a bad trade-off, and there will be more than a few happy Shaman who can finally stop worrying about gemming for Expertise or and finally replace that Hemorrhaging Circle.