Shaman: Elemental

masanbol

Shaman - Contents

[top]Introduction

Elemental Combat is the ranged damage tree for Shaman. The spec brings numerous raid buffs via totems & talents, is an additional source of bloodlust/heroism, and can function as an emergency healer. Elemental shaman tend to have lower mana use than other damage casters, by a combination of passive regen, and cost reduction mechanics. As of patch 3.0.8, the AE damage output is low, through a combination of Magma Totem (which has element conflicts with Totem of Wrath), Chain Lightning (on a 4.5 second cooldown) and Thunderstorm (45 second cooldown, with a 20 yard knockback). It has been confirmed that Blizzard are looking at improving the AE effectiveness of Elemental, but those changes will be forthcoming in a later patch.
Note: This article is based around changes made in patch 3.0.8.
Please go to Shamans - Elitist Jerks instead of posting comments here.

[top]Spells

Spell	Rank	Mana Cost	Range	Cast Time	Cooldown	Damage	Co-Efficient	School
Lightning Bolt	14	10%	30(36)	2.5(2)		715-815	71.43%	Nature
Chain Lightning	8	26%	30(36)	2(1.5)	6(4.5)	973-1111	57.14%	Nature
Lava Burst	2	10%	30(36)	2(1.5)	8	1192-1518	57.14%	Fire
Flame Shock	9	17%	20(35)	Instant	6	500 + 556/12 sec	21.40% + 40.00%	Fire
Thunderstorm	4	0%	10(12)	Instant	45	1450-1656	Unknown	Nature

Lightning Bolt (LB)
This is the bread and butter spell for shaman, used to fill space in rotations. It has no cooldown, medium damage, and low mana cost.
Chain Lightning (CL)
Chain Lightning is the "ranged AoE" spell for elemental, although it is still frequently used in single target rotations. It has slightly more dps than Lightning Bolt, but has a much higher mana cost. It has a chain ability, which causes additional hits to nearby targets, jumping to the next target with a 30% damage reduction. There are three jumps and each jump has a seperate chance to crit.
Lava Burst (LvB)
This is the new spell for elemental in WotLK. It's a fire spell with an 8 second cool-down, and will consume your Flame Shock DoT for a 100% crit chance. In certain situations, it is possible to pre-empt burst dps requirements by throwing flame shock up beforehand, and saving the Burst cooldown for when it ticks over. 7k+ damage is very useful in these cases (eg: finishing acolytes on Faerlina, killing Zombie Chow on Gluth).
Flame Shock (FS)
Flame Shock is the most useful shock out of the four. It is a part of a standard rotation, primarily because of the interaction with Lava Burst mentioned above.
Hex
This is the Shaman CC. It's a polymorph-like ability, with a 30 second duration and a 45 second cooldown. It is possible to use Hex aggresively, casting it, then using Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, and Lava Burst in quick succession. The damage caused by the first two spells should not be enough to break the spell, so Lava Burst will often kill the target where it stands.
Wind Shock (WS)
This is the new spell interrupt ability for shaman, that also lowers threat against the target. While it is off the global cooldown, it is still on the shared shock cooldown. It is unknown whether it will be moved to its own cooldown, given the dependancy of Elemental on Flame Shock for damage output.
Thunderstorm (TS)
Thunderstorm is the new 51 point talent for elemental, with AoE, knock-back, and mana restore functionality. Primarily used in PvE as a mana restore and in PvP as a knock-back, both functions are useful in the other environment. For example, it is useful to knock nearby mobs back to tanks to be picked up, or in specific boss fights like Gluth, as another way of preventing the Zombie Chow from reaching him.
Flame-tongue Weapon
The Elemental weapon imbue. FT increases spell power by 211, or 274 with 3/3 Elemental Weapons.

[top]Totems

Air
Wrath of Air is the only totem for Elemental Raiding. It is important to note that, depending on the number of casters/melee and their abilities, Windfury may be a better totem to drop if you are the only shaman present.
Earth
There are no practical Earth totems for casters. That said, be prepared to drop Strength of Earth, Stoneskin or Tremor depending on requirements.
Water
Water will be used for Mana Spring by default, but be prepared to use Healing Stream, Poison Cleansing and Disease Cleansing totems depending on fight requirements.
Fire
Primarily fire will be used for Totem of Wrath. Occasionally, the additional AE damage from Magma may prove useful, and in high frost damage fights (eg: Sapph/KT) Frost Resistance may be needed if no Paladins or other Shaman are present (note that Imp MotW gives 75 resist, vs the 130 from the totem).

[top]Talents

[top]Elemental Combat

Concussion Core talent. Stacks additively with Call of Flame
Convection Semi-core talent. While mana is not much of an issue, it is still useful to take this talent.
Elemental Devastation Despite being in the Elemental tree, this is a pure Enhancement talent. Should not be taken at all.
Elemental Warding A useful filler talent. More for PvP than PvE.
Call of Flame Core talent, primarily used for the LvB bonus. Stacks additively with Concussion (1+0.05+0.06 for a total of 11%)
Elemental Fury Core talent. Multiplies with CSD to give 109% damage bonus critical strikes. Stacks additively with Lava Flows (0.545*(1+1+0.24) = 122.08% bonus).
Elemental Focus While this only procs from damage spells, it can be consumed by damage and healing spells. Is calculated after passive mana reductions (1-Concussion)*(1-Clearcasting) = LB costs 5.4% of base mana rather than 10%.
Reverberation This talent is not ideal for elemental, because of the high point investment for low returns.
Eye of the Storm A useful filler talent. Very handy for levelling, and for encounters with high pushback frequency.
Improved Fire Nova Totem Semi-useful filler talent, more orientated towards PvP than PvE
Unrelenting Storm A useful filler talent. While the extra mana regen is useful, it is not really needed at the moment. Players with more mana intensive rotations may want to spend more points here.
Call of Thunder Core talent. This is one of the most valuable talent points in the tree, because of the low point investment
Elemental Reach Semi-core talent. Increases range to allow more time casting while farming, but also allows the player to more easily avoid ranged abilities in both PvE and PvP.
Lightning Mastery Core talent. The equivalent of 25% haste in 5 easy points.
Elemental Precision Core talent. Hit is the most valuable stat you can have, and the threat reduction is mandatory as the only shaman de-agro ability has a 20 yard range.
Storm Earth & Fire Semi core talent, providing some extra damage output, extending range, and reducing cooldowns.
Elemental Mastery Core talent. 20% additional crit chance for 30 seconds will dramatically increase clearcasting uptime.
Lightning Overload Core talent. Effectively a 10% damage bonus for CL and LB due to the 20% chance and 50% damage modifier. Crits can proc Clear casting and Oath.
Elemental Oath Core talent. The crit buff does not stack with Moonkin Aura, but the other half of the talent uses the Clearcasting buff so it is not affected.
Lava Flows Core talent. Increasing the range of FS is useful for the same reasons that Elemental Reach is, but turns the 20 yard shock range into 35 yards. The critical strike bonus for LvB stacks additively with Elemental Fury, so there is a total 112% increase of the normal critical strike bonus damage (0.5*(1+1+0.24)=112%) and is calculated after CSD is applied (0.545*(1+1+0.24)=122.08%)
Totem of Wrath 40 yard range applies to both the buff and debuff. See Totems for more details.
Astral Shift Core PvP talent, unknown PvE use as yet. Ideally, this talent should be skipped in a PvE build, as with Elemental Warding.
Shamanism Core talent. Increases damage output of the two primary spells.
Thunderstorm See: Spells.

[top]Enhancement

Enhancement is the sub-spec of choice. It allows us to increase crit (Ancestral Knowledge & Thundering Strikes), improve mana efficiency (Ancestral Knowledge & Shamanistic Focus) as well as increasing Spellpower (Elemental Weapons). Other talents from the first three tiers can be taken as filler talents depending on player choice.
It is important to note that going past tier 3 in Enhancement in order to make use of MD (Mental Dexterity), MQ (Mental Quickness) and DW (Dual Wield) will not result in improved DPS due to the sacrifices made in the elemental tree, even with the extra spellpower from converting Int to AP to SP, and the gain from a second FT weapon imbue. Taking Stormstrike is also not advisable for the same reasons, as well as the fact that you will be operating at a 110% threat cap for melee, rather than the normal 130% for ranged DPS.

Ancestral Knowledge Most useful talent from this tier. See Intellect for more information
Enhancing Totems This talent isn't useful for Elemental, because ToW replaces FT. Could be taken if you drop SoE for Melee/Hunters, but it is recommended that Restoration Shaman do this.
Improved Shields Filler. Could potentially be useful in medium/high AoE situations for increased DPS/mana regen, but there are more useful talents available.
Improved Ghost Wolf Filler. Useful if you PvP often, but not that useful in PvE.
Thundering Strikes One of the prime reasons to use an Enhancement subspec, and is included in the character spell stats.
Guardian Totems Filler. Another more PvP oriented talent.
Shamanistic Focus Useful for reducing the high mana cost of Flame Shock. Stacks additively with Convection
Elemental Weapons Increases FT Weapon from 211 to 274 spellpower, a gain of 63.

[top]Restoration

The Restoration tree only has one talent that can affect Elemental: Tidal Mastery. As this is a Tier 4 talent, it takes a 20 point investment to get that 5% crit, compared with 10 points in Enhancement (not to mention the other talents that can be taken). As such, a resto sub-spec is not practical.

[top]Builds

52/14/0 This is the basic template for a PvE elemental build. The four points in Eye of the Storm & Unrelenting Storm can be swapped around as needed, although I would recommend leaving them as they are. The remaining posts can be put where-ever, although again I'd recommend 5/5 US and the last in Elemental Warding. Please note that this is not updated for 3.0.8, as Wowheads talent calc is based on the live version

[top]Itemisation

[top]Stats

Intellect
166 Int = 1% crit, 1 Int = 15 Mana, 10 Int = 1 mp5 with Unrelenting Storm, 10% bonus with 5/5 Ancestral Knowledge. Int is the only base stat that will affect DPS, and even then only in a minor way. It's primarily involved with increasing and replenishing available mana.
Spirit
Spirit is virtually worthless to Shaman, as there is no equivilent to the talents that allow passive regen to continue while casting. This is also apparent by the way shaman gear is itemised. The downside is that Cloth and Leather gear may not be as valuable if points have been spent on spirit
Spell Power
This is the primary stat for Elemental. Scaling wise, it increases in a linear fashion, but this increases as other stats increase (Crit, Haste, & Hit until capped). One additional point of spellpower will always be worth the same as the previous point.
Critical Strike Rating
Crit rating is a useful stat to have, but because it only effects the direct damage portion of Flame Shock, and Lava Burst always crits (in conjunction with Flame Shock), it is not as useful as other stats. However, since critical strikes increase Clearcasting and Oath uptime, it is still a useful stat to have. Scaling: While each additional percentage increases dps, each extra percentage is worth slightly less than the previous. This is because 101/100 is greater than 141/140 (being the new % divided by the old %)
Hit Rating - TTT Entry for Spell Hit
Hit Cap, Imp Faerie Fire/Misery adjusted in brackets. Horde: 368 (289) Alliance: 341 (263)
While this is the most valuable stat to have when not hit capped, it is worthless when over the hit cap. Shaman get 3% hit from talents and can have an additional 1% from the Draenei racial aura. This means that Alliance shaman require an additional 13% hit, while Horde require 14%. This cap can be achieved via gear (gems, gear, enchants) or buffs/debuffs (food, Misery/Imp Faerie Fire).
Haste Rating
The value of haste is dependant on how you manage your cooldowns. If you use a set rotation, you may find that certain haste figures result in a nil dps gain, or even a loss. However, if you use a priority system it avoids these issues. More on that in the rotation section. Every extra haste point is worth slightly less than the previous one. Haste caps for 1.5 second spells are 50% (15% with Bloodlust) and 2.0 second spells 100% (or 53% with Bloodlust)
[h3]Gems[/3]
There is little to be said regarding gems that is not covered by looking at stat EP values. However, it is important to note that [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] is the only meta you should use.
Also, when gemming, try using [Vivid Forest Emerald] for blue sockets if you require additional hit. This allows you to stack more [Runed Scarlet Ruby]. The reasoning behind this is that two 9sp/12stam gems give 18sp, one less than you would get from a single sp gem. When deciding to match socket colours for the bonus, only match Red & Yellow sockets, and only for Spellpower or Hit bonuses.

[top]Glyphs

Major

[Glyph of Chain Lightning]
[Glyph of Earth Shock]
[Glyph of Elemental Mastery]
[Glyph of Flame Shock]
[Glyph of Flametongue Weapon]
[Glyph of Lava] - 10% co-efficient bonus (57.14% -> 67.14%)
[Glyph of Lightning Bolt]
[Glyph of Water Mastery]

Minor

The above list contains only glyphs that could possibly be used in PvE. Of these, Flame Shock (Major) and Water Shield (Minor) are the only must haves, Flame Shock because of the dramatic change to rotation mechanics, and Water Shield because there aren't any other Minor glyphs that are even remotely useful. For the remaining two Major glyph slots, the choice generally will come down to Flametongue Weapon, Lava, and Lightning Bolt. Flametongue will usually be dropped in favour of the other two, as 2% crit is not as useful as a flat 10% co-efficient bonus for Lava Burst, or a 4% damage multiplier for Lightning Bolt.
There is the possibility of using Earth Shock to reduce the GCD down to 0.5 seconds, except this is bugged to be 1 second at the moment. It is also debatable as to whether the DPS gain from using ES twice every 18 seconds will be more DPS than the benefits of Lava & Lightning Bolt. As for the remaining glyphs, Chain Lightning is only useful in AoE (and given the general lack of AoE options for Elemental, this is not a good idea), Elemental Mastery will align cooldowns with Heroism but the average crit chance gain will be ~0.67%, and Water Mastery is virtually useless (If you have mana issues as an Elemental Shaman, you're doing it wrong).
The only minor glyph of note is Thunderstorm, which exchanges the knockback effect for an extra 2% mana restore. Again, the extra mana is virtually useless, but the removal of knockback is the primary use for this glyph. It will be a personal or raid preference as to whether you use this glyph, depending on how well you use the knockback effect (some raid leaders may require this glyph, especially if you do not manage it very well).
[Glyph of Lava] adds 10% extra spellpower, this is a flat co-efficient bonus (57.14% -> 67.14%)

[top]Rotations

Fixed Rotations
The fixed rotation is based on a set number of spells in a set order. An example of this would be the 8/1 Fireball/Scorch rotation of Fire mages (or Frostfire/Scorch for the Frostfire builds). Generally the rotation will be FS, LvB, CL/LB filler, LvB, CL/LB filler, and repeat. CL can be used 2-4 times in this rotation, depending on cooldown management. CL is useful here in that it can help reduce that "filler" time to allow the next LvB to be cast sooner. Also, with a fixed rotation you are likely to clip 1-2 ticks of the Flame Shock dot.
- Waiting for Cooldowns
  There are two methods of handling the cooldowns in a fixed rotation. The first (No-Wait) is to simply ignore the fact that cooldowns may be coming up soon, and use the best spell available. The advantage is that there is no wasted time, but you may be pushing the next LvB use out past the 8 second cooldown, reducing DPS. Whereas the second method involves waiting for the next cooldown (be it CL or LvB). The downside of waiting for cooldowns is that it is a fine line between wasting too much time, and letting cooldowns go unused. Ideally, the best solution is to swap between the two based on your own judgement.
Priority Rotation
In a priority rotation, there is no set cast order (this is a concept that has been used by Shadow Priests for some time now). All you do is use the highest priority spell that is available. Generally, this will be FS>LvB>CL>LB, although it should be noted that Flame Shock should be recast, and clip the last tick, if Lava Burst will be off cooldown and the cast finishes after the DoT expires.
Earth Shock
There are some people suggesting that Earth Shock be used in rotations as well, with the ES glyph that reduces the GCD when it is used by 1 second. Currently however, this is not functioning correctly, and reduces the GCD to 1 second instead. Even with this fixed, it is still somewhat dubious as to how much of a gain it will be, especially with the 25 yard range (with talents).
Chain Lightning
CL can be used in single target rotations, as it has a slightly higher DPSC (or Damage Per Second Casting) figure than LB. The trade off is that the mana cost is much higher (and disproportiantly so compared to the dps gain). There is also suggestion that using it in place of LB just before the LvB cooldown is up can increase dps as well, and while this is a good point, you would either have to be running a fixed rotation, or be able to discern which spell to use at which point. Generally, I would recommend using a CL in every LvB cooldown that you don't cast FS in, for either fixed or priority rotations, if you want to do this.

[top]Resources

[top]Theorycrafting

[top]UI Mods & Tricks

Please do not ask me for a list of mods that I use. All mods can easily be found on addon sites, and are easily replacable with others based on personal preference. All this section is intended for is to give examples of some necessary mods for raiding as elemental, as well as a few customisation options that may be beneficial.
Part of end game raiding is making sure that your UI is showing you all the information you need in a clean and tidy fashion.
Here is my UI prior to a Sarth +2 pull. (Note, this is just a placeholder. I'll put a better action shot up, with some labels for reference)

Totem tracking.
While Blizzard have added timers to the default UI, it is recommended that you find an addon to handle them. I use TotemTimers, but as long as you can manage your totems easily any will suffice. TT also handles weapon & shield buffs. You can see the totem timers above the minimap and to the right, while weapon/shield timers are to the left. The bar between them is for my focus target, but more on that later.
DoT Timers
With the Flame Shock/Lava Burst synergy, it is important to keep track of your Flame Shock DoT. After testing a few mods, I settled on NeedToKnow which allows you to track buffs & debuffs on a simple timer. As you can see, I have the Flame Shock timer sitting under my cast bar, so that all the useful time information is close together.
Cooldowns & Buffs/Debuffs
Also from the author of NeedToKnow comes TellMeWhen. This mod operates in a similar manner to NTK, but shows spell icons (or hides them) under certain conditions. I use mine to show when Thunderstorm, Lava Burst, and Chain Lightning are all on cooldown, and when Flame Shock is not on the target. It can also show shields and weapon buffs. These are the icons directly above the cast bar in the middle of the screen.
Unit Frames
Unit Frames come in a wide range of forms. While AGUF and Pitbull are popular, I have switched to another mod called Underhood. This controls the vertical bars for myself, my target, the focus frame, as well as the cast bar. The advantage of Underhood is that it uses DogTag code to create each element, you can customise how your unit frames work. For example, I can use the following code in a Text element to show an icon whenever my mana is bellow a certain percentage (being the optimal time to use Thunderstorm).
```
[if (PercentMP <= 90) then "Interface\Icons\Spell_Nature_UnrelentingStorm":Icon(72)]
```

Zomglazerpew · 12/22/08, 7:17 PM

The cooldown on CL is wrong, its 3.5 with talents not 4.5.

◊ Binkenstein · 12/22/08, 7:43 PM

Originally Posted by Zomglazerpew

The cooldown on CL is wrong, its 3.5 with talents not 4.5.

No, it's 4.5. You have neglected to review the 3.0.8 patch changes which I am basis this article around, mostly because I don't want to have to re-write it in two-three weeks.

Zomglazerpew · 12/23/08, 12:41 PM

Storm, Earth and Fire: This talent has been moved up in the tree, and it’s talent points have been reduced to 3 down from 5. Wind Shock is also included in the range increase (with Earth Shock). The damage bonus to Flame Shock has been increased, up from 10/20/30/40/50 to 20/40/60.

Thats from the latest PTR patch, says nothing about changing the actual stats on the CD, just says it was reduced in points because it was moved up in the tree.

◊ Binkenstein · 12/24/08, 12:18 AM

Then tell me how a talent that reduces the cooldown by 0.5 seconds every point manages to do 2.5 with 3 points where it used to do 2.5 with 5 points. The other parts were mentioned because they did change...

Bayk · 12/28/08, 4:39 AM

I was just on the PTR and the talent says it reduces the cooldown on chain lightning by by 1.5 seconds but the cooldown is still 3.5 seconds. Whether this is intended or not I don't know...

◊ Binkenstein · 12/28/08, 7:38 AM

Then can you please go and discuss it in the shaman forum, rather than here.