Shaman

A recent WoW.com podcast talked about Shamans, namely enhancement Shamans. It was so convincing that I am now planning on leveling my own Enchancement ( and probalby dual-spec'd Resto ) Shaman. With Huntry being stuck at level 23, I'm a bit aprehentios about starting yet another toon ( not to mention having a Horde Rogue at 17 ). To aid in this, I've decided that I'm going to use the "extra" emblems and shards on my level 80s to use. I know for sure that there are quite a
bit of Stonekeeper's Shards. Since I don't see myself getting into PVP or Arena any time soon, I might as well spend them on some useful gear.PVP Heirlooms for PVE content may not be optimum, but the XP
increase will more than make up for it.

To this end I've decided to gear up my shaman with one of the
following for each slot. I included PVP items mainly because all three of my level 80 characters have more Stone Keeper's Shards that they know what to do with, so they might as well be put to good use:

Shoulders:
Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders - 40 Emblems of Heroism
Champion Herod' Shoulder - 40 Emblems of Heroism Prized Beastmaster's Mantle - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards

I already have the Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders from when I leveled Waash. I may just use those until the stat allocation annoys me enough
to buy the Mail piece. As an added bonus, the stat allocation for the mail pieces are good for Enhancement Shamans as well as Hunters. So Huntry can make use of these as well.

Chest:
Champion's Deathdealer Breastplate - 40 Emblems of Heroism

As far as I know there are no PVP chest pieces available, so this is the clear winner. This can also be used by Huntry eventually. Bonus, its also a mid-drift ;-).

Weapon:
Sharpened Scarlet Kris(1H Dagger) - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards Battleworn Thrash Blade(1H Sword) - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards
Venerable Mass of McGowan(1H Mace) - 40 Emblems of Heroism
Balanced Heartseeker (1H Dagger) - 40 Emblems of Heroism

The choice of weapon has been the hardest. Partly because using an heirloom weapon does not generate the +10% experience bonus that the
shoulder and chest pieces do. This allows me to put the decision off without feeling like I'm missing out on extra XP.

Of the 4 possible choices, it gets complicated depending on which
factors I choose to give more weight to. The factors I'm considering include effectiveness for this toon, reuseability, and cost. I want
the weapon to be effective for this toon, or else why even buy an heirloom weapon? I also want the weapons to be reuseable. The next three classes that I have an eye towards leveling include this
enhancement shaman, a Hunter, and a Rogue ( possibly a Worgen Rogue for Cata). Theoretically I could buy one set of gear that would work well with all three classes. Sidenote: I will also want to dual-spec
to restoration, to aid in getting into dungeons, but that will probably require gathering a whole other set of gear.

My last consideration is cost. My toons have varrying amounts of "old emblems", namely Heroism, Valor and Conquest badges. If they havent' spent them by now, they probably don't need any gear that is purchaseable with those emblems. Those can be converted to Heroism badges in order to purchase the heirlooms. I hesitate converting the current Triumph emblems down to Heroism because all the toons still have gear they need to purchase with those badges. With that in mind, all the toons also have quite a few Stone Keeper's Shards. Those are
gathered from participating in Wintergrasp, and from killing Heroic bosses when Wintergrasp is owned by your faction. Bob has somewhere
around 350 shards, Hotplate about 450, and Hooff a staggernig 600 shards. I'm not too interested in PVP, so I doubt I'll use those shards for that. Other than gem patterns, or vanity mounts, the shards
are up for grabs.

If I were to go strictly for maximum effectiveness for my Enhancement Shaman, the choices narrow. At level 40, a shaman can dual-weild. At
that point 2x Venerable Mass of McGowans becomes the best
overall. They have theright stats, and are both slow weapons. Pre-40, the shaman would best be served with a nice 2-hander. At 40 EoH each, those maces are expensive, and aren't going to be used until level 40,
so I would like to postpone buying two until absolutely necessary. For a rogue, the stats are decent, +agi, +stam, +ap and some crit. The
stats are decent for a hunter also, unfortunately hunters cannot use Mace weapons. Eventually I think I will get at least 1 Mass, maybe even two if at level 40, my other characters have emblems to spare.

Purely based on cost, I would go for the Sharpened Scarlet Kris, its cheap, using Shards, passable for a shaman, good for a rogue, and useable by a hunter. The fast weapon speed makes it sub-optimal for a
shaman but not terrible, specially considering the quest reward alternatives.

The Balanced Heartseeker is a nice weapon, but expensive, and not too much nicer than the PVP alternative. Also, after reading through the
comments it seems that the Battleworn Thrash Blade's proc is very low and its lack of raw stats is disturbing.

Looking at the possible 2handers for pre 80, none seem particularly suited to Shamans ( or Rogues/Hunters) for that matter. I think the happy medium may just be to get a Venerable Mass of McGowan now, and get another at 40. Or get a Sharpened Scarlet Kris now ( cause its cheap) and get one or two Venerables at 40. Either way.. this should
be fun.