Enhancement Shaman Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits - Dragonflight 10.2.5 (2024)

Please be aware that as of the Dragonflight Pre-Patch and Dragonflightexpansion, all Covenant abilities, Soulbinds, and Conduits will only function whilewithin the Shadowlands. This page will temporarily remain as a reference.

This page assumes that you are already familiar with Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits.If that is not the case, we have a number of pages that can help you get up to speed:

• Covenants Guide, which explainswhat Covenants are, what perks they bring, and how you can join one;
• Shaman Covenant Abilities,which lists all the abilities that Shamans gain by joining each Covenant;
• How To Change Covenant?, which tells youhow you can switch Covenant (rejoining a former Covenant will require you to perform anumber of tasks to regain their trusts);
• General Soulbind Guide, which explainswhat Soulbinds are and how you can pledge yourself to them to open up their Soulbind tree;
• Shaman Conduits, whichlists all of the Conduits available to Shamans.

With Patch 9.1.5, all Covenants are now freely swappable, so you can switchat any time. Due to Enhancement having almost complete freedom with Covenant picks,the table below lays out the situations where each choice will excel:

The only strong recommendation is to make sure you have at least Night Faeavailable for single-target, and then one of either Necrolord orVenthyr for multi-target situations, though all three have theirown strengths and weaknesses.

With Patch 9.1.5 having opened up free Covenant swapping, you now havemuch more freedom to select Covenants that are more specialized at certaintypes of damage. Enhancement is in the lucky position of having all Covenantshave a strong reason to be played, with only Kyrian falling behindafter double Legendariesare unlocked. Which you pick is mostly dictated by the type of damage you areaiming to do, and there really is not a single pick that covers all thebases right now. Because of that, each Covenant has its own section belowexplaining why and when you would pick each.

For more details, you can check each respectivechoice below in the Kyrian,Night Fae andVenthyr sections onthis page.

Below is a list of the ideal Conduits organized by their type(those being Potency, Endurance and Finesse). For more detailedinformation on all of the Shaman Conduits, check ourShaman Soulbinds and Conduits Page.

1. Focused Lightning
2. Elysian Dirge (Kyrian), Tumbling Waves (Necrolord), Essential Extraction (Night Fae) or Lavish Harvest (Venthyr AoE)
3. Magma Fist (with Hot Hand), Unruly Winds (with Doom Winds), Chilled to the Core (with neither).

Your first pick in every situation should always be Focused Lightning,as it drastically improves our Maelstrom Weapon spenders.After this, you should take the respective Covenant Conduit between Elysian Dirge for Kyrian, Tumbling Wavesfor Necrolord, Essential Extraction for Night Fae,and Lavish Harvest specifically in (AoE situations) for Venthyr.Your third pick is based on build — Magma Fist ifplaying Hot Hand, Unruly Winds if playing Doom Winds,or Chilled to the Core if playing neither of these.

Vital Accretion provides a strong extra defensivetool when Earth Elemental is active, but this fades ifit dies. This means it is ia great choice for raids, butlower impact in Mythic+ where it will often taunt somethingand die before you get much out of it. Condensed Anima Sphereis a lot of free healing without any conditions at all andis the ideal second pick, and lastly Refreshing Watersamplifies our self-healing which is already quite good, evenif it costs us DPS to make use of.

Finesse Conduits are linked to more utility orientedeffects that are attached to spells we do not cast toofrequently. These are very low impact and your choice hereis mostly personal.

The only one of note is Thunderous Paws that givesa small extra burst of speed when we are forced into Ghost Wolfto cover distance, which can be helpful.

Night Fae provides some very well-focused Soulbind optionsand provides the highest potential single-target builds,both allowing for good sustained and, when double Legendariescome into play our best source of burst. The synergy betweenall of the systems in play and how well Fae Transfusionfits into that with Seeds of Rampant Growth and thenew set bonus means that this is a staple in Patch 9.2.The only significant change this patch is it now favoursDreamweaver as its Soulbind, as the spec is evenmore Haste hungry than it was previously.

Fae Transfusion as an ability is a meteor styledamage split, which pushes it really hard into being asingle-target focus. While the burst damage this does ispowerful, the downside of having to channel in melee canoccasionally cause issues if you do not plan ahead.With that said, the power it has when used correctlyis undeniable and the Essential Extractionmakes it available more frequently, also allowing youto trigger Soulbinds and the Seeds of Rampant Growtheffect, making it mandatory whenever you play this Covenant.

Soulshape has a lot of overlaps with Ghost Wolf, which makes it a lot less interestingfor us. The blink effect, Flicker, is useful and canadd some extra instant mobility in some raid encounters,so it is nice to have access to.

This adds in a large burst of Critical Strike followingeach Fae Transfusion which is the main benefitof the legendary. While the cooldown reduction for Feral Spiritis nice, it is not something you heavily play around if itcauses delays in the cast, there are simply too many otherthings tied into the cast itself to warrant it.

• Dreamweaver - Ideal Enhancement Tree:is now the go-to pick because of how much value we place onHaste, and the strength of Field of Blossoms. While this canbe annoying to play around, we do not need full uptime to stillget a lot out of this, and this even comfortably fits in 3 Potencyslots.
• Niya - Ideal Enhancement Tree:gives a solid boost to damage via Grove Invigorationfollowing each Fae Transfusion, which is also theperiod we are dealing the most damage thanks to Seeds of Rampant Growth.A solid pick, but given it is Mastery it locks you intocertain builds.
• Korayn - Ideal Enhancement Tree:has only one real selling point which is First Strikewhich, while very good, does not have the same punch in Patch 9.2because Doom Winds struggles to fit into Night Fae builds.It also forces us out of a third Potency slot which the Covenant relieson thanks to Seeds of Rampant Growth. It is still a good AoE pickif there are enough targets spawning to get good uptime on the buff.

Patch 9.2 changes the game for Necrolordin a big way, largely because its biggest drawback was alwayshow difficult it was to set up extra Flame Shocksin AoE situations to leverage the power of Primordial Wave.Now this can be done easily, this comes out as one of the bestmulti-target options with a good supporting build, enablessome good funnel options, and is even competitive insingle-target, making it an excellent all rounder.

Primordial Wave is the ability that requiresthe most setup for Enhancement. It applies Flame Shock toyour target on a 45-second cooldown, and grants a 15-secondbuff that causes your next Lightning Bolt cast to hitall Shocked targets an extra time for 150% of its normal damage.When extra targets are present you want to aim to haveas many Flame Shocks active as possible (spreadingit with Lava Lash) for a large burst of damagewith a follow up Lightning Bolt. Tumbling Wavesis the Conduit which, while RNG the amount of things built intothe button itself makes it worth using in any situation youplay this Covenant, even moreso after double Legendariesunlock.

The Fleshcraft is a very powerful defensiveoption that is a selling point to playing Necrolord.It provides a significant absorb shield over a 3-second channel,and reduces damage taken by 20% while channeling makingit an extra emergency defensive we lack. It also hasa small cooldown reduction aspect, reducing it by1 second whenever moving near an enemy corpse.

Splintered Elements gives extra Hastewhen you consume the Primordial Wave effect,meaning it scales with extra targets up to 6 based onthe number of Flame Shocks active (as this isthe target cap). This can result in extremely highsurges of extra stats and plays well into the funnelaspect of the Covenant, while also working very wellwith some other Legendary options that have a strongbenefit from burst Haste.

• Bonesmith Heirmir - Ideal Enhancement Tree:provides the most flexible option just by virtue of the flatstats given by Forgeborne Reveries, and how powerful Carver's Eye is in AoE scenarios.
• Plague Deviser Marileth - Ideal Enhancement Tree:is a good single-target option that has extra synergy thanksto Kevin's Oozeling and Tumbling Waves that alignswith the highest burst windows given from Splintered Elements.
• Emeni - Ideal Enhancement Tree:is the weakest of the three, but still solid just because of Lead by Example pairing up well with Tumbling Waves.The rest of the tree however leaves a lot to be desired.

Venthyr leans heavily into AoE situations, andwhile it is a good bit weaker in single-target the power of Chain Harvest and the ease of use is the reason thisis worth considering. After double Legendariescome into play this even further solidifies that.

Chain Harvest is extremely simple to play with, just treatit as a combination of Chain Lightning and Chain Healon a long cooldown for a high burst of damage. This just slots inas a Maelstrom Weapon spender on cooldown, tryingto hit as many targets as possible, and scales with all aspectsof Maelstrom Weapon making it instant and deal increaseddamage/healing. Critical Strikes also provide a small amount ofcooldown reduction. Lavish Harvest isthe Covenant-specific Conduit and improves the Critical Strikechance, and is only worth using after double Legendariesunlock and the focus becomes more on the frequency of Chain Harvest casts.

Door of Shadows provides a short-cast displacement thatteleports you to your target location. While this has some extremelyniche uses, Enhancement does not have a big issue withmobility so it does not really change much about your gameplay.

This power causes Chain Harvest to apply Flame Shock toevery enemy hit, and Riptide to any ally healed. Patch 9.2also added in some cooldown reduction, causing each Flame ShockCritical Strike to reduce its cooldown by 1 second which is thereal strong part of this. The frequency of casts this providesin some cases can be extreme, sometimes dropping its cooldownby up to 90% with everything involved, and some double Legendarycombinations such as the Elemental power Skybreaker's Fiery Demiseplay into this even harder. It also heavily alters the statpriority, giving a much heavier leaning toward Critical Strike,but is extremely focused however on dealing one type of damage:AoE at 5 targets.

• Theotar the Mad Duke - Ideal Enhancement Tree:is the standout Soulbind exclusively because of the interactionbetween Wasteland Propriety and Elemental Conduit.The uptime provided by us is very high, and while Soothing Shadeis average, we get Party Favors for a permanent stat bump.
• General Draven - Ideal Enhancement Tree:provides an AoE alternative based on the strengths of both Built for Warand Battlefield Presence, but only leaves room for two Potency slots.
• Nadjia the Mistblade - Ideal Enhancement Tree:is fairly average now that our Conduits are desirable, but the powerof Thrill Seeker paired with Fatal Flaw is still there.

Kyrian will likely start the patch out strong due to thestrengths of the Soulbinds available and how flexible Vesper Totemwithout interfering with the rotation. However, when double Legendariesunlock it starts to fall behind. This is largely because thereare no strong synergies with Raging Vesper Vortex andother Legendaries or parts of the preferred builds. Whileit is nice to have access to the extra burst tool, thisfactor pushes it down to the weakest Covenant.

Vesper Totem as an ability is deceptively simple,it summons a totem that has 3 damage charges and 3 separatehealing charges, with one charge being expended each time youuse an equivalent ability to trigger a pulse around it. Thesecharges are independent of each other and the cooldown ofthe ability begins when it is placed. It can also be re-castto move it off the global cooldown to a new location. Treatthis as an extra burst tool both in single-target and AoE,trying to make sure you hit as many targets as possible. Elysian Dirge is the Conduit, and is always worthtaking especially with some Soulbinds considered, andis mandatory after double Legendariesunlock as it also applies to the bonus pulses from Raging Vesper Vortex.

Summon Steward provides you with 3 charges of Phial of Serenity when summoned, which heals youfor 20% of your max health and removes all Curse, Poison,Bleed and Disease effects on you when used. This is one useper instance of combat, but does not share a cooldown withother effects like Healthstone. A simple extraboost to survival that can save you in a pinch, with bonusesin situations where you have debuffs to cleanse.

This adds two bonus pulses to Vesper Totemthat detonate for every 3 charges consumed. This hasno strong interactions with anything and is largely freedamage. The only extra factor to consider is that thispushes you into playing Earth Shield, as hardcasts of this trigger the healing pulse and is theeasiest way to set off the second hit without wasting Maelstrom Weapon charges.

• Forgelite Prime Mikanikos - Ideal Enhancement Tree:remains the best option, especially when you add in double Legendarieswhich raises the value of the Effusive Anima Acceleratorcooldown reduction thanks to Raging Vesper Vortex.
• Pelagos - Ideal Enhancement Tree:Due to the large amount of Mastery related traits on the tree thisserves best as a single-target build around Witch Doctor's Wolf Bones,and can do that well.
• Kleia - Ideal Enhancement Tree:has some good options, but where it slots in does not really beat eitherof the alternatives because it clashes with triple Potency, even withhow good Pointed Courage is.