Elemental Shaman

[Chikt]

Elemental Shaman got a pretty major revamp in 3.08, so the old specs that are out there and easy to find are outdated now. So I've been working on constructing a new spec for myself that functions well.

So far I've come up with something that looks like this [53/18/0] (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300150321335132031351000000000000000000 000000000052520310000000000000000000&glyph=071208020607).

PROS:
Extremely mana efficient. (Not by choice. More out of a necessity to put points SOMEWHERE.)
High range for long-distance targets. (Which is spectacular in world and battleground PvP)
Astral Shift for survivability against stuns. (Rogue Survival)
Imp. Grounding Totem. (Mage Survival)
Lots of extra Spell Power. (Bigger hits)
Extreme emphasis on Lava Burst damage output. (Because seeing 10K crits on people is awesome.)
Extremely high crit rating. (Because seeing 5K crits on people after the 10K crit is even better.)

CONS:
No Toughness. (I don't consider it a necessity until fights start taking longer)
Sustained DPS is lower. (Lightning Overload is even less dependable in PvP)
No instant casts. (Kind of went out of fashion with Thunderstorm in the mix.)
Long cast heals and no pushback resistance. (It's difficult enough to stay alive as Resto.)

What are peoples thoughts? The most major change I made from my old spec was the removal of Lightning Overload. I will probably spec back into it when fights actually last longer with people having more resilience, but right now I'm pretty much just a demon on the battlefield when nobody is paying attention to me.

Some people have suggested I move the points from Unrelenting Storm and Elemental Reach into Reverberation for more shocks, but it seems like an awful lot to give up for five second cooldowns instead of six.

I am also working a fair bit on my rotations in PvP and trying to work out what is best. In large scale PvP I am opening up with Flame Shock (obviously) and tossing a Lava Burst right off the bat (purging any defenses or shields taken into consideration) followed by a chain lightning, two lightning bolts, another chain lightning and another lava burst if necessary. That seems to make the best use of my cooldowns, and usually I don't even have to go any further than the second lightning bolt.

The problem is, opening with Flame Shock throws both Earth Shock and Wind Shock on cooldown. And if the person I am fighting turns and interrupts my lightning bolt, they're BOTH put on the GCD (which I never quite got as a mechanic. What good is Wind Shock besides more of a Resto Shaman tool for low cost interrupts?). I've tried changing it around - opening up with chain lightning and lightning bolts instead to try to lure out an interruption on them, but it causes the same problem, only the other way around - I get my Lava Burst off and am stuck for around 6 seconds twiddling my thumbs.

I think that's more an issue with the class than something I am doing wrong with rotations. Faking people out is particularly hard with latency, but I do my best.

With so many silences, stuns and interrupts in the game right now I find that Shaman feel like they are lagging behind, there's little we can do in the case of lockdown or lockout besides waiting it out (and most of our talents and abilities are geared towards waiting them out, like Astral Shift in the Elemental tree or Focused Mind in Resto) so I am thinking right now we're glass cannons, but will be extremely powerful in the latter arena seasons when everybody is pushing the Resilience cap and we can actually SURVIVE through those things. If anybody has any suggestions as to how to mitigate it now though (Besides "loltrinket") I'd be happy to hear it.

I usually try to avoid measuring my worth in 1v1's, because Shaman will always be the support class in World of Warcraft - the class that sits behind all the other ones tossing massive damage or heals until attention goes to them. We're dependent upon other classes for protection in that respect, and give them something in return. I'm not sure if that will ever change as a mechanic for Shaman. As such I try to measure my worth by how I do in battlegrounds and world PvP, and it's pretty damn good. I'm happy where I sit as Elemental.

PvPing as Elemental, mind you, is something fairly new to me - but I actually feel like I am achieving something when I'm killing people, rather than just healing the people killing people. XD

[Yatokth]

Put points in Imp Fire Nova.

Do it.

It may be a delayed stun, but that + war stomp is a guaranteed lava burst > chain lightning against melee. Which is DEVASTATING.

I dueled an ele shaman (who was 1600 in 2v2, which is IMPRESSIVE with that spec) who chained it like that and I had to work my ass off dodging the massive range of fire nova to beat him, and it was just barely.

You can catch people off guard with that.

[Chikt]

Put points in Imp Fire Nova.

Do it.

It may be a delayed stun, but that + war stomp is a guaranteed lava burst > chain lightning against melee. Which is DEVASTATING.

I dueled an ele shaman (who was 1600 in 2v2, which is IMPRESSIVE with that spec) who chained it like that and I had to work my ass off dodging the massive range of fire nova to beat him, and it was just barely.

You can catch people off guard with that.

I was considering this, but my problem with it that the Fire tree of totems has so many useful ones (Flametongue, Wrath (if you spec into it), Magma (which does CRAZY damage now)) that buffing Imp. Fire Nova is going to be something I'll only use in 1v1 situations. And that's not my focus, being really good a duels - my focus is on improving what I do best already, support.

Fire Nova is great for "WTF" factor and getting casts off, yes, I am not going to deny that at all. But using it denies us a LOT of buffs to damage output or raw damage output itself (I cannot emphasize how crazy Magma Totem is now. It does 800+ damage every 2 seconds to a target, 1200+ if it crits).

Trying out Fire Nova to see what sort of damage it does, I am seeing... 1500 non crit, 3000 crit when it goes off. Hrm. 20% extra from the talent would make that around 1800, 3600 crit. Not too bad.

It is arguable that I could have a totem rotation. Use Fire Nova, throw down Magma for the full duration, and then use Nova again. That would be quite a lot of damage and offset the damage I wouldn't be doing with lava Burst or the like, and likely offsets the damage bonus/critical strike chance bonus of Wrath... hm.

The one fault those totems DO have is that they are EXTREMELY expensive. Over 1000 mana (which you compared to Wrath's miniscule 219). I could arguably sacrifice Imp. Guardian Totems for Imp. Fire Nova and still keep Wrath along with my mana regen (which I'd need more than ever using those totems.) and then just use Wrath for long distance fights with Casters, and the other two for close-quarters with melee.

Sorry. Thinking as I type. So a spec like this [55/16/0] (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300152321335132031351000000000000000000 000000000050520310000000000000000000&glyph=071208020607).

[Yatokth]

I was considering this, but my problem with it that the Fire tree of totems has so many useful ones (Flametongue, Wrath (if you spec into it), Magma (which does CRAZY damage now)) that buffing Imp. Fire Nova is going to be something I'll only use in 1v1 situations. And that's not my focus, being really good a duels - my focus is on improving what I do best already, support.

Fire Nova is great for "WTF" factor and getting casts off, yes, I am not going to deny that at all. But using it denies us a LOT of buffs to damage output or raw damage output itself (I cannot emphasize how crazy Magma Totem is now. It does 800+ damage every 2 seconds to a target, 1200+ if it crits).

Trying out Fire Nova to see what sort of damage it does, I am seeing... 1500 non crit, 3000 crit when it goes off. Hrm. 20% extra from the talent would make that around 1800, 3600 crit. Not too bad.

It is arguable that I could have a totem rotation. Use Fire Nova, throw down Magma for the full duration, and then use Nova again. That would be quite a lot of damage and offset the damage I wouldn't be doing with lava Burst or the like, and likely offsets the damage bonus/critical strike chance bonus of Wrath... hm.

The one fault those totems DO have is that they are EXTREMELY expensive. Over 1000 mana (which you compared to Wrath's miniscule 219). I could arguably sacrifice Imp. Guardian Totems for Imp. Fire Nova and still keep Wrath along with my mana regen (which I'd need more than ever using those totems.) and then just use Wrath for long distance fights with Casters, and the other two for close-quarters with melee.

Sorry. Thinking as I type. So a spec like this [55/16/0] (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300152321335132031351000000000000000000 000000000050520310000000000000000000&glyph=071208020607).

I realize 1v1 isn't a situation you excel in, but it happens, in all PvP, even arenas.

And this would actually be very useful in arenas, an AOE stun? Yes please. If they're both in range you get a double disrupt, and depending on who you're teamed with, can capitalize (Ret Paladins get +Crit on Judgements off Stuns, can follow the stun with a silence or another stun depending on class) not to mention the casting bonuses. VERY potent for arena burst, especially with the currently melee heavy environment.

But what that ele shaman did is exactly what you said. He rotated magma > fire nova > magma as fake outs and used the nova to get lava bursts off. It was nasty.

[Ryoku]

Your specc is very simular to the ones I've created while toying with trees (the only difference being that I did not put points into elemental weapons and guardian totems, and instead put them into lightning overload, to which I can see you made the better descision)

Overall the specc seems very much worth a shot, and fairly cookie cutter (a compliment since you MADE the cookie cutter yourself instead of using someone elses).

But, as Yat said, play with the idea of getting imp fire nova totem. AoE stun is can be mighty nasty on the field.

[Yichimet]

Both Elemental Warding (currently? I can't say for sure--you'll know better than me Mr. 800 resilience) and Unrelenting Storm are probably better spent elsewhere. Elemental Warding isn't going to stop much right now, and Unrelenting Storm isn't good until you have matches over a couple minutes, and even then it's probably better spent elsewhere. No shock cooldown reduction reeeeally puts stress on your GCD management. I've only ever done arena matches as resto and I always wished I had that extra second. Improved Fire Nova is way more useful in PvP than Wrath & Flametongue--you should only be worrying about those two if you have a couple spare beats that aren't requiring your GCD. In fact, speccing Wrath as PvP is probably a point better spent elsewhere too.

I'd go for something like this: 55/16 (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300150321335132031351000000000000000000 000000000052520310000000000000000000&glyph=071208020607#). It's nice that there are good talents and that you have to make choices for once, eh?

[Kained]

You need to spec in to Crusader strike

[Chikt]

Both Elemental Warding (currently? I can't say for sure--you'll know better than me Mr. 800 resilience) and Unrelenting Storm are probably better spent elsewhere. Elemental Warding isn't going to stop much right now, and Unrelenting Storm isn't good until you have matches over a couple minutes, and even then it's probably better spent elsewhere.

I consider the spec a "Battleground Spec" more than an "Arena Spec" because I've not done Arenas in quite a while now. The thing with Elemental Warding is that it is a flat percentage on ALL damage. Only 6%, but that stacks not only with Resilience (Which I am actually at 957 when my trinket is fully stacked) but also Astral Shift (making damage reduction during stuns 36% isntead).


No shock cooldown reduction reeeeally puts stress on your GCD management. I've only ever done arena matches as resto and I always wished I had that extra second. Improved Fire Nova is way more useful in PvP than Wrath & Flametongue--you should only be worrying about those two if you have a couple spare beats that aren't requiring your GCD. In fact, speccing Wrath as PvP is probably a point better spent elsewhere too.

The more I think about it the more I agree about the totems, but most PvP specs strangely don't go into Reverberation anymore. I've never seen one that has, especially now with Flame Shock so important to damage output.


I'd go for something like this: 55/16 (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300150321335132031351000000000000000000 000000000052520310000000000000000000&glyph=071208020607#). It's nice that there are good talents and that you have to make choices for once, eh?

It is damn nice actually having stuff to put points into, oh yeah. It's like we actually have some FREEDOM now with how we construct specs. Not to mention I could make an absolutely awesome Elemental/Enhancement "storm trooper" spec since Crit extends over both Melee and Spell damage now. But I won't.

The only change I'd make to that spec you suggested is moving the two points from Convection into Elemental Warding. After all, we're not going for mana longevity here - 4% damage reduction instead of 4% reduced mana cost for PvP, I'm always going to go for the Damage Reduction.

I think it's starting to look like a far better PvP spec.

[Thelsuo]

With diseases up I can still kill em in an Obliterate+Howling blast+ Frost strike crit combo :(. Unless they have 19k+ HP.

*Hugs Dio*

[Cyrass]

Disregard this. I am only now realizing that FT gives spell power now.

[Chikt]

Disregard this. I am only now realizing that FT gives spell power now.

Yeah, it's a pretty damn nice little buff to spellpower - around 60 or so last I checked? Pretty substantial, considering. It's basically like having another piece of spell damage gear on. It's particularly nice as Elemental, since our PvP gear doesn't have much bonus spellpower on it.

[Yichimet]

FT is way more than 60--fully talented it's something like 274 spellpower.

http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=58790 + http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=29080

[Chikt]

FT is way more than 60--fully talented it's something like 274 spellpower.

http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=58790 + http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=29080

No, no. I meant around 60 EXTRA spellpower on top of what you usually would get from Flametongue.

[Yichimet]

Oh ha. Duh me. Yeah--then you got it.

[Chikt]

Oh ha. Duh me. Yeah--then you got it.

I wasn't really clear. Cyrass' original post was about the talent that gives extra spelldamage to Flametongue, which I was responding to more than the edit he made. So I was referencing that talent, not Flametongue overall. XD

[Yichimet]

It's one of those talents that could be great for everybody. I don't use it in my PvE resto build anymore because I get better use out of those points elsewhere, but I did use it when I was first starting in heroics and raiding.

[Naheal]

Dio. Frost DK/Ele Shaman.

let's do eet.

[Chikt]

It's one of those talents that could be great for everybody. I don't use it in my PvE resto build anymore because I get better use out of those points elsewhere, but I did use it when I was first starting in heroics and raiding.

PvE Resto you can easily go with a spec that only puts 5 points outside of the Resto tree, it's pretty crazy, but the Resto tree has always been that way. The Resto build I roll with for PvE uses both that talent and the Improved Shields talent though.