Enhancement

It's generally accepted that Enhancement is the spec of choice for solo'ing and leveling, so that's what I went with for Exelus. There were admittedly slow spots here and there, but after 40 things changed. That's when dual-wielding came into play, and mobs started dropping like flies. I'm a rogue without all the sneaky-peaky! I'm a fury warrior without all the "need more rage!" Brilliant.

My current spec is (headed towards) 0/44/17, which is pretty standard given that there's much synergy between Enhancement and lower-tiered Resto talents. First lets look at some key Enhancement talents:

Shamanistic Focus - don't shock without it being up, since our limited mana pool drains fast without it. Mental Quickness, prior to patch 2.3 was kind of meh, but now comes with a nice 30%-of-your-attack-power increase to healing and damage spells. Huge buff. And of course the top talent, Shamanistic Rage gives us 30% damage mitigation plus returned mana. My only mistake is not using this all the time, every time the cooldown is up. Notice a pattern here? Knowing when and how to use our limited mana pool is paramount.

Next let's look at those supportive Resto talents:

Nature's Guidance and Totemic Mastery are the main reasons for reaching into Resto. NG gives us an additional 3% to hit, which helps mitigate our misses since all "special attacks" (like dual wield) comes with a huge miss penalty. It's also important at end-game, when you're facing bosses several levels higher than you and you need all the "to hit" you can get. Totemic Mastery is great for soloing, as well as group utility since it gives you a noticeable increase in totem range. Along the way I picked up Totemic Focus, with a 25% reduced mana cost, which becomes more important and you start to group more in the upper levels.

So while I'm totally happy with Enhancement's dual-fisted pew pew playstyle, my alt-itis is urging me to start an Elemental/Resto Shaman to try out that side of things. (If only to take advantage of all the great Elemental/Resto Outland gear) When I do, I'll report on the leveling progress and compare/contrast with Enhancement.